Featured Artist: Brian Corey

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First of all, please introduce yourself to our readers that might not be familiar with you and your work.

Featured artist Brian Corey

My name is Brian Corey. I currently reside in Medford, MA with my wife and two children. I grew up 40 minutes north of Boston in the town of Chelmsford. Drawing became an active interest at an early age, my parents were supportive of my creative endeavors and enrolled me in various art making and drawing courses. I was very lucky to attend a high school that had a strong visual art department and fostered my pursuit of various art making processes. I knew in high school that I wanted to attend art-college with the original intention of becoming and illustrator or graphic designer. After sampling a couple of colleges I earned a BFA in art education/painting from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 1995, and in 2007 I completed my MS in Art Education also from Mass Art.


Currently, what type of job(s) you do besides making art?

Right after completing my undergrad I began teaching visual art in various public school settings. For the past six years it is my pleasure to be an art instructor at the Ottoson Middle School in the town of Arlington. My main responsibility is to develop and implement a curriculum that exposes students to various contemporary artists, concepts, and art making experiences while exploring the mediums drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. In addition to teaching, I am also responsible for creating and managing the art department website, serving on various school committees, and coordinating an after-school art class.


Can you give our readers some insight into your work in general?

Brian Corey, Untitled 4, 8" x 8", Acrylic and Ink on Panel, 2011

I work in the medium of drawing and painting. My work is a series of lines layered on a panel in a manor that resembles abstract mapping or topography. The process of layering intentional and random lines mimics the growth and decay that occurs in terrain.

Brian Corey, Untitled 3, 8" x 16", Acrylic and Ink on Panel, 2011


Brian Corey, NE Boundary, 24" x 24", Acrylic and Ink on Panel, 2011.

I am most attracted to the ambiguous forms that emerge, multiply, breakdown, and flourish anew. Although my work is heavily influenced by landscape and the natural world that inhabit the landscape, I am not trying to create a specific representation of those objects, but invent a history of a place.

Brian Corey, Untitled 1, 16" x 16", Acrylic and Ink on Panel, 2011


Brian Corey, Untitled 2, 16" x 16", Acrylic and Ink on Panel, 2011

Would you like to share a bit your creative process with our readers?

Brian at work.

I draw/paint on paper or panel. I thin out ink and acrylic paint as much as possible. Then I begin creating a series of lines on the surface of the panel with a number 1 or number 2 paint-brush.

After I have created a layer, I cover the layer with a thin coat of paint, and repeat the whole process over and over. I will try and save some areas of the painting or delete other parts, it is a very intuitive process. It is time consuming and often tedious so I work in small chunks of time.

I have not had a studio for about three years and actually use my classroom as my studio. It works for me I can work a little here or there, after school, or during a free period if I have one.


Do you have plans for your direction?

Brian Corey, Untitled, 10" x 12", acrylic and ink on vellum, 2010

Right now the only plans I have in the direction category, is to change the scale of my work. For the past few years the work I have been making has been no larger than sixteen inches by sixteen inches. I think it would be very interesting to see these drawings made on a larger scale such as twenty five inches by twenty five inches or larger.


What is the most interesting comment about your work you have heard from a viewer?

Brian Corey, Specimen area A, Acrylic and Ink on Paper, 2008


“It looks like hair in the drain.”

How have you handled the business side of being an artist?

This is a difficult question to answer, because I feel like I am still learning the “business” of art. I ask a lot of questions and advice from friends and colleagues. I stay in touch with the network I am developing. It has been my experience that opportunities present themselves in unexpected places, so I try and put myself out there as much as possible.


How many years have you been an artist member of Kingston Gallery? What had inspired you to join this artists cooperative gallery?

Kingston Gallery is located at 450 Harrison Avenue #43, Boston, MA 02118.
Please visit website to learn more about how to becoming a member artist.

I have been a member of the Kingston Gallery for the past 3 years. I had just finished my graduate degree and I was looking for way to become more involved in the art community than I had been. The Kingston was looking for new membership and I applied and was accepted. The Kingston Gallery is made up of a wonderful group of artists at various points of their art careers. It is a pleasure to be a member of the Kingston community, the value of having access to so much experience is amazing.

Please tell us a bit about your duties as a member of this artist-cooperative gallery.

My duties as a member have ranged from preparing the space for exhibition, helping hang and promote exhibitions, coordinate a mailing list with other members, participate in the financial team, and sit at the gallery.



What galleries have you recently exhibited in?

In the past year I have exhibited in the Bannister Gallery at Rhode Island College. I participated in the member’s exhibit at the Kingston Gallery.

Brian Corey, Area 14, 13" x 36", Acylic and Ink on Paper, 2009


Brian Corey, Land Here, 13" x 26.5", Acrylic and Ink on Paper, 2009


Installation view.

I recently had the wonderful opportunity of participating in a “Pop-Up” exhibit called Gobs of Lines Some Wet Some Dry.

Brian Corey, NE BOUNDARY, 24" × 24", acrylic, ink and graphite on panel, 2011

This show was curated and hung by a local artist named Conley Harris, who opened his own studio to the public to host this exhibition. I very much enjoyed being a part of this exhibition. I had the opportunity to hang my work along side artists I really admire such as Mary O’Malley, John Guthrie, and Chris Faust. It would be great to see more of these spontaneous exhibits in this area.



Would you like to inform our readers of your current and upcoming exhibits?

Installation view: Brian's work at Oficio.


Brian Corey, Untitled, 8" x 8", Acrylic and Ink on Panel, 2011

I currently have a body of work on exhibit at a boutique office space called Oficio on Newbury St. This show will be up through January 13, 2012. Other artists participating in this exhibit are Sand T Kalloch, Nikki Rosato, and Shireen Agah Yadollapour. I will have a solo exhibition of my work at the Kingston Gallery in July of 2012.


Please share with us the awards and recognition you received in the recent years.

Brian with his work.

In 2008 I won a painting Fellowship Award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Please Click here to go to MCC Award Page.

Are you available for commissioned works? Do you have website for interested readers to learn more about your work?

I am available for commissions. Please visit my website www.briancoreystudio.com for more information and images of my work.


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