From Stage to Studio: Inside The Little Gallery with Trey McCurley
Get to know multifaceted talent actor, artist, and new business owner McCurley
A new splash of color has arrived on Burro Avenue.
Actor and artist Trey McCurley recently opened The Little Gallery, a vibrant new art space and studio tucked into the courtyard between Aspen & Ivy and The Fat Rabbit in downtown Cloudcroft.
Origin Story
McCurley is candid about his feelings toward the promotional side of his craft. “The two things I hate most about acting are photo shoots and interviews,” he chuckles, seated in the gallery’s sunny courtyard.
But the real work, he adds, lies in the hustle. “The game is rejection over and over and over again.”
Originally from Marlow, Oklahoma, McCurley lived full-time in Los Angeles for 16 years. He divides his time between various locations, including his home in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico.
Due to virtual auditions becoming increasingly common during the pandemic and a thriving New Mexico filming scene, he no longer needs to live in Los Angeles full-time. He has found a "good middle space" in New Mexico, halfway between his family in Oklahoma and his work in LA.
“My family is absolutely 100% supportive, though they were mildly skeptical early on,” McCurley says.
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McCurley's artistic journey began in the theatre. He started acting onstage at age 14 and was "heavily trained in, and influenced by, classical theater.” He pursued a Master of Fine Arts in Acting at UCLA,“ and was “one of just nine students accepted to the school that year.”
Over his career, he has accumulated numerous roles, estimating that he has 30 films and TV projects under his belt, and "way more plays than that.”
Playing Hamlet around the time he turned 30 was a significant theatrical experience; he performed it for a 12-week run in Santa Monica.
“Typically, you get on set and do your job and get out. Sometimes acting can seep in and affect you, to the point where I remember staring down into the shower drain and feeling horrible because every night I was going through that same horrible thing,” referencing the character's struggles with his father dying and the conflict of struggling to kill his uncle.
Another influential play was The Greenbird, where he played "Calman, king of statues". This role involved posing like sculptures, which drew his attention to the original Rodin works in the UCLA sculpture garden. “They were larger than life, like giants or Nephilim.”
He's often cast as the villain, as seen in his part in Danger in the Spotlight. “Of course, the bad guys are more fun than the good guys,” he says with a smile. “There’s just more to play with. It’s fun to inhabit the character.” His upcoming film role, which will be shot in Albuquerque next month, features him as a “nefarious pharmacist” cultivating deadly plants in a community garden.
He laughs about the nature of acting. “It’s lying. You're playing pretend. What is the difference? You're making stuff up.”
From Stage and Screen to Studio
Parallel to his acting career, McCurley is an accomplished oil painter. He began painting around age 26, after finishing graduate school, when he “finally had free time.”
Unlike his formal theatre training, he is self-taught in painting. “It took me 10 years before I made a painting that satisfied me,” he says. “The hardest part was getting my hand and eye to work together. You can see it before you can do it.”
His work is bold and abstract — bright colors, bold shapes, and even sparkles adorn his canvases, which depict yucca, mesas, and Ocotillo cacti. Earthy wood assemblages, crafted from roots and foraged materials, punctuate the gallery walls. “I’m a nerd about wood,” he laughs. “Anything I can find out in the forest.”
McCurley says painting offers something different than theater. “I regard theater as the greatest of all art forms. The most immediate way to express to a human being what it means to be human… but painting is also therapeutic. Put on good music, have a drink, make a good painting.”
You can find McCurley in The Little Gallery, which is named after his mother, Trish Little, and late stepfather, Eddie Little, doing just that.
Little Gallery, Big Talents
The Little Gallery showcases McCurley’s work alongside that of his neighbor, Cloudcroft Reader Contributing Editor and oil painter Drew Gaines. Gaines's realist—sometimes surrealist—paintings of local scenes offer a contrasting style that McCurley feels complements his own. The gallery also sells small artisan items, such as magnets, turquoise-tipped cholla sticks, and other curiosities.
McCurley hopes the space becomes a platform for more local artists. “There are a lot of artists in Cloudcroft who could use a storefront. My goal is for us to help each other make some money, sell our art, put our names out there.”
The Little Gallery already boasts big talent— Gaines’s work was recently included in the juried Marfa Invitational, and he’s been featured in the competitive print publication, New American Paintings.
Balancing the gallery with an acting career isn’t easy. “Sometimes I have four auditions in a week, and they send me 14 pages to memorize in 48 hours. That’s the hard part — trying to keep the gallery open while handling all that,” McCurley says.
Still, Cloudcroft holds a strong pull. McCurley owns property here and says the gallery gives him a creative foothold between Oklahoma and LA. “It’s a beautiful little community with a few problems here and there… but it’s an oasis. A thriving downtown. Unlike most of America, which has been stripped of all of that.”
He mentions friends in Cloudcroft, including old friends from when he lived here 20 years ago, and new bonds he made since returning in 2020. McCurley considers his neighboring business owners, Cherry Fawn Bell of the Fat Rabbit and Nicole Alcorn of Aspen & Ivy, to be such friends and supporters. He beams when discussing his Burro Avenue Courtyard comrades.
“Those of us who live here stick together pretty well.”
In Cloudcroft — and The Little Gallery — McCurley is putting down roots. He hopes you’ll visit and stay awhile.
The Little Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., or by appointment through Instagram (@thelittlegallerycloudcroft). It is located at 206 Burro Avenue, in Building 2.
Artists interested in displaying their work can email McCurley at latrey@gmail.com or contact them on Instagram at @thelittlegallerycloudcroft and @treymccurley.
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Amazing Trey! Congratulations!!!