The Crazy Monkey Gallery

Lance Corey

Art is my weapon of choice. Being Irish, Iroquois, and French Canadian: My values, my life-long love of history and learning; my politics, and my willingness to speak truth to power… these inform my art.

A child of Merrick, LI; A graduate of Mepham High School; Running track and body surfing, playing baseball, ice hockey, rugby and boxing; Having been a Lifeguard and a broiler-man; artists’ model, bouncer, housecleaner/painter; gas station attendant and real estate agent; chauffer, butler and sewer man; Earning degrees in Communication Arts from Notre Dame ’71, Philosophy and Theology from Truman State ’76, and History and International Relations from Long Island University ’94; Winning Fulbright Scholarships to study in Egypt in ’88 and China in ’93; Teaching World History and Geography in NYC for 22 years; Taking 3 NYC students to live with the Maasai in Kenya for 2 weeks in 1990; Returning to Kenya to record their folk music and songs a month later…these all play a part.

When I am asked in what style I paint, I say “It is my own!" I am not interested in refining my techniques but in painting from my gut, from my heart, and from my mind. It is my vocabulary giving form to my life experiences and insights. Primitive, raw, unschooled, self-taught but with purpose: To use my art as a weapon; to provoke and challenge my audience to think; To touch the common nerve that binds us all by exposing all for all to see and ponder. In looking into my art others will see themselves and they’ll see me: My demons, passions and missions in life are apparent in my art.

I sold my first abstract painting of a New York City skyline for $10 when I was ten. By age 11 I was copying Rouault and Modigliani from photos my mother cut out from magazines like Better Homes & Gardens. I’ve been influenced by the Impressionists, the Post-Impressionists, the Fauvists, Matisse, Picasso, Jackson Pollock and the many other Abstract Expressionists. They opened the door for my Neo-Primitivism. I’ve been called an intellectual artist. One thing people say about my art is that my art has something to say.

My paintings can be found in Norway and Spain and a few scattered here and there in the US. I sent 5 paintings to the infamous American Painters in Paris Exhibition of 1975-76, and I have spent the past 37+ years trying to get justice for the hundreds of artists victimized in that fraud. A Firehouse Gallery Purchase Award selected by Esteban Vicente put one of my Paris paintings in the VP’s office at Nassau Community College in 1976. I showed on the streets of Greenwich Village and Bridgehampton in 1977. A WLIW-TV auction benefited from the 1982 sale of my piece Song for Ulla. CUNY showed The Prisoner in their 1984 Art Against Apartheid Exhibition.

I performed Guerilla Art in 1980, 1989, 2001, and 2002 at the Cultural Services Building of the French Embassy on 5th Avenue in NYC (across from the Met) to acknowledge the involvement of the French Government in the aforementioned Paris Exhibition. Future performances are being planned.

I started exhibiting my paintings and drawings again in 2009.

June Kaplan

Dreamscapes reflect a direct passage into my turbulent emotional nature. The acceptance of life as a gift, to sense the world as i wish to see it are thematic in my work. My paintings evolve to a place i imagine-bringing order through abstraction. The mind is a wonderful tool to paint-pictures translate with trial and error-the best effects are from the unexpected so i give the line some play to catch something startling or gentle trying not to overwork it where the glimmer goes away. My life as in my paintings becomes an experimental expression of love and liberty.

Events & Openings

We open a new exhibition every month with 1-3 featured artists
supported by a group show of Gallery Members.

Please check back regularly- or better yet stop by the Gallery - to see what's new.

Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|May|Jun|Jul (A)|July (B)|Aug|Sep|Oct|Nov|Dec

NOTE: Beginning May 22nd Gallery hours will be
Thursday - Monday from 11am -5pm