[3] Painting scenes of city life, his early work featured solitary figures on street corners and in cafes or taverns during the Great Depression.

Rigelhof, "he was known as the Surrey boy, the stranger, the outsider and lonely without friends his age, but exotic – he had ridden camels and elephants, walked about with a pet orangutang, and conversed with snake-charmers.

"[4] Following his father's request for a divorce, in 1921 his mother fled with Surrey to Manitoba, Canada, where she found work as a teacher north of Winnipeg.

At age 16 he was hired as an apprentice at the commercial art firm Brigdens Limited, where, on his free time, he went on sketch outings with co-workers and discovered the work of Robert Henri and the Ashcan School.

[1][4] At this time, he also attended evening classes given by Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald and George Overton at the Winnipeg School of Art.

[4][2] Later that year, Surrey was a founding member of and frequent exhibitor at the Contemporary Arts Society with Lyman, Brandtner, Roberts, Muhlstock, Paul-Émile Borduas, Prudence Heward, and Marian Dale Scott.

[1] In 1941, Surrey was present at the Première exposition des Indépendants with Alfred Pellan, Paul-Émile Borduas, Jori Smith and Goodridge Roberts.

[2] Turned down as a war artist due to the importance of his work at the Montreal Standard, in 1944 Surrey and reporter Mavis Gallant selected and captioned some of the first Holocaust photographs published in North America.

He also exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts with John Lyman, Eric Goldberg and Goodridge Roberts in 1949, with Louise Landry Gadbois in 1949, and with York Wilson in 1955.

[4] Solo exhibitions of his work were also held at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal in 1971 and at the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris in 1972.

Rigelhof also noted the performance aspect in his work and "a mysterious forcefulness that releases the dancers and their viewers into belonging to something greater than our individuated selves.

"[4] Reviewer Guy Viau compared Surrey to a theatre director: "He studies their goings and comings... as they pass and meet.

"[11] Vie des Arts reviewer Giles Daigneault wrote, that for Surrey, "painting exists to console" viewers "through difficult periods of life".