Golden Temptation II
What's left when the gold is gone.
Gold gets you there. It does not tell you what happens after.
Golden Temptation II sits on the other side of the chase, in the quiet that comes when the thing you wanted stops being enough. Where the first work held one perspective, this one brings two together. A man and a woman, both marked by the same hunger, neither one spared it.
The eyes are withheld on purpose. When someone is starving for fame or fortune, the hunger does not show first in the eyes. It shows in the mouth. I put it there, in the lips, where wanting lives before it becomes anything else.
Companion work: Golden Temptation captures the pull before the consequence. Golden Temptation II stands on the other side of it. Together, the two works move from wanting something badly to confronting what that wanting actually gave you.
Golden Temptation II is a one-of-one work by Harlem artist Corey Wesley from the Unapologetic Faces series. It is signed and documented with a certificate of authenticity.
36x24 wall art. Archival museum-quality aluminum on an MDF back. Scratch and fade resistant, with nothing over the surface. No glass, no acrylic. Ready to hang, French cleat included, floats half an inch off the wall and hangs vertical or horizontal. Signed on the front by Corey Wesley. Signed certificate of authenticity included.
Contact Carol Ward About This Piece
Corey Wesley
Harlem shaped his practice: the faces on the subway, in recovery rooms, and in the space between performance and collapse. He creates what remains when the face stops performing.
His proprietary mixed-media process combines writing, Photoshop, Illustrator, and modern technology, including AI-assisted tools. Over days or months, he refines symbolism, color, composition, facial structure, and emotional tone until each work carries his recognizable visual language.
The faces in these works are archetypes. They belong to everyone. And no one.
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Each one of one. Once acquired, it does not return.
