In the galleries; art cops.(Pace University, New York, New York)(The Talk of the Town)

Alberto Goris and Salvatore Zisa, a pair of thirty-four-year-old narcotics detectives and self-taught painters, enjoy spending Sundays on Museum Mile, even though, as Goris says, "Our wives are like, 'You just went to the museum!' " The other day, Goris and Zisa rode uptown in a taxi from the gallery at Pace University, where their first exhibition, "Cop Art," opened several weeks ago, to spend the afternoon at the Whitney.

Goris, who has long lashes and a pentagon of neatly trimmed facial hair around his mouth, pointed out a stretch of sidewalk on West Broadway, in SoHo, where, prior to getting the show at Pace, the two of them used to sell their work every Saturday.

"I don't think we'd ever go back to the streets," said Zisa, a stocky fellow in a Carhartt coat and paint-smeared work boots. Zisa has fourteen and a half years on the force; Goris two years less. "But we've been painting forever," Zisa said. "We were always painters. We just became cops. Yeah, most cops go into a bar and talk about the job. On the job, we're like, 'Did you get the new ARTnewsor Artforum?' "

"There's this movie called 'Basquiat,' " Goris said. "We've watched it, like, a thousand times. There's a part where Benicio Del Toro says it takes four years to become famous and six years to get rich. In three years since we started selling on the street, we got a show!"

"So we're, like, ahead of the game."

Zisa's paintings are abstract and evoke a chalkboard -- there are mathematical equations, stick figures, slogans ("Simple Is Best," "Amor Omnia ...