Joe Coleman (painter)
Encyclopedia
Joe Coleman is an American painter, illustrator and performance artist.
to a World War II-veteran father and the daughter of a professional prizefighter
.
His work draws as much from Coleman's beginnings as a comic book artist as from historical precedents. His paintings are most often compared to those of Hieronymus Bosch, and his work has been exhibited alongside canvases by the Dutch master.
. The following year he had one-man shows at two major European museums, in Paris at the Palais de Tokyo
, and "Joe Coleman Internal Digging" at Berlin's KW Institut. In 2008, New York's Dickinson Gallery exhibited Coleman's work together with "Devotio Moderno: Joe Coleman/Northern Primitives" paintings by Hans Memling
and other 15th century early Netherlandish painters
.
antics — have been documented in the Pranks! volume of RE/Search
, along with the works of some of his contemporaries such as Boyd Rice
.
oddities. He's a patron of Johnny Fox
's Freakatorium in New York City (where he lives) and was a supporter and good friend of the late rockabilly
eccentric
Hasil Adkins
. He also acted in Black Hearts Bleed Red, a 1992 film adaptation of Flannery O'Connor
's short story A Good Man Is Hard To Find
, made by New York independent film director Jeri Cain Rossi, and also in Scarlet Diva
, Asia Argento
's 2003 film debut as director.
Biography
He was born Joseph Coleman, Jr. in Norwalk, ConnecticutNorwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of the city is 85,603, making Norwalk sixth in population in Connecticut, and third in Fairfield County...
to a World War II-veteran father and the daughter of a professional prizefighter
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
.
Work
Coleman is best known for intricately detailed portraits of subjects both famous and infamous: artists, outlaws, serial killers, movies stars, friends, and family. He paints with a single-hair brush and uses a jewelers loupe; much of the detail is not visible to the naked eye. The majority of his portraits portray the central subject in the center of the canvas, lozenges containing biographical scenes and details from the subject's life ring the central image.His work draws as much from Coleman's beginnings as a comic book artist as from historical precedents. His paintings are most often compared to those of Hieronymus Bosch, and his work has been exhibited alongside canvases by the Dutch master.
Exhibitions
In 2006, Coleman had a retrospective at New York's Jack Tilton Gallery entitled "Joe Coleman: 30 Paintings and a Selection from the Odditorium", curated by Steven HolmesSteven Holmes
Steven Holmes is a Canadian curator based in Hartford, Connecticut-Biography:He was born in Cobourg, Ontario and educated at The University of Toronto, Harvard University and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design....
. The following year he had one-man shows at two major European museums, in Paris at the Palais de Tokyo
Palais de Tokyo
The Palais de Tokyo is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, near the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs the City of Paris and hosts the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris...
, and "Joe Coleman Internal Digging" at Berlin's KW Institut. In 2008, New York's Dickinson Gallery exhibited Coleman's work together with "Devotio Moderno: Joe Coleman/Northern Primitives" paintings by Hans Memling
Hans Memling
Hans Memling was a German-born Early Netherlandish painter.-Life and works:Born in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt in the Middle Rhein region, it is believed that Memling served his apprenticeship at Mainz or Cologne, and later worked in the Netherlands under Rogier van der Weyden...
and other 15th century early Netherlandish painters
Early Netherlandish painting
Early Netherlandish painting refers to the work of artists active in the Low Countries during the 15th- and early 16th-century Northern renaissance, especially in the flourishing Burgundian cities of Bruges and Ghent...
.
Patrons
Among people who own Coleman's paintings are such luminaries as Iggy Pop, Johnny Depp, Jim Jarmusch, Leonardo DiCaprio and H.R.Giger.Subjects portrayed
- Grover Bergdoll
- Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
- Boxcar BerthaBoxcar BerthaBoxcar Bertha , director Martin Scorsese's second film, is a loose adaptation of Sister of the Road, the fictionalized autobiography of radical and transient Bertha Thompson as written by Ben Reitman...
- Jack BlackJack Black (author)Jack Black, born 1871 in Vancouver but raised from infancy in Missouri, was a late 19th century/early 20th century hobo and professional burglar, living out the dying age of the Wild West. He wrote You Can't Win a memoir or sketched autobiography describing his days on the road and life as an...
- Albert FishAlbert FishHamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was an American serial killer. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac and The Boogey Man. A child rapist and cannibal, he boasted that he "had children in every state," and at one time put the figure at...
- Harry HoudiniHarry HoudiniHarry Houdini was a Hungarian-born American magician and escapologist, stunt performer, actor and film producer noted for his sensational escape acts...
- Paul John KnowlesPaul John KnowlesPaul John Knowles , also known as The Casanova Killer, was an American serial killer tied to the deaths of 18 people in 1974, though he claimed to have taken 35 lives.-Early life:...
- Charles MansonCharles MansonCharles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
- David Owsley
- Hasil AdkinsHasil AdkinsHasil Adkins was an Appalachian country, rock and roll, and blues musician, though he was frequently considered rockabilly and sometimes primitive jazz...
- Carl PanzramCarl PanzramCarl Panzram was an American serial killer, arsonist and burglar. He is known for his confession to prison guard and only friend, Henry Lesser. In graphic detail, Panzram confessed to 22 murders, and to having sodomized over 1,000 males...
- Quantrill's RaidersQuantrill's RaidersQuantrill's Raiders were a loosely organized force of pro-Confederate Partisan rangers, "bushwhackers", who fought in the American Civil War under the leadership of William Clarke Quantrill...
- Hank Williams
- Mary BellMary BellMary Flora Bell was convicted in December 1968 of the manslaughter of two boys, Martin Brown and Brian Howe...
- Kip KinkelKip KinkelKipland Philip "Kip" Kinkel is an American spree killer. In May 1998, at the age of 15, he murdered his parents and engaged in a school shooting at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon that left two students dead and 22 others wounded...
- Timothy McVeighTimothy McVeighTimothy James McVeigh was a United States Army veteran and security guard who detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995...
- Edward TellerEdward TellerEdward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist, known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb," even though he did not care for the title. Teller made numerous contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy , and surface physics...
- Indian Larry
- CelineCeline- People with the family name Celine :* Louis-Ferdinand Céline, pen name of French author Louis-Ferdinand Destouches- People with the given name Celine :* Céline Dion, , French-Canadian pop singer.* Celine Helgemo, Norwegian singer...
- Johnny EckJohnny EckJohnny Eck, born John Eckhardt, Jr. was an American freak show performer born with the appearance that he was missing the lower half of his torso. Eck is best known today for his role in Tod Browning's 1932 cult classic film, Freaks...
- Carlo GesualdoCarlo GesualdoCarlo Gesualdo, known as Gesualdo di Venosa or Gesualdo da Venosa , Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza, was an Italian nobleman, lutenist, composer, and murderer....
- Larry DesmedtLarry Desmedt"Indian" Larry Desmedt was a noted bike builder, stuntman, and innovator in the world of custom motorcycles.Indian Larry was born Larry Desmedt in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York....
- Jayne MansfieldJayne MansfieldJayne Mansfield was an American actress working both in Hollywood and on the Broadway theatre...
- Mary BellMary BellMary Flora Bell was convicted in December 1968 of the manslaughter of two boys, Martin Brown and Brian Howe...
- George GroszGeorge GroszGeorg Ehrenfried Groß was a German artist known especially for his savagely caricatural drawings of Berlin life in the 1920s...
- Ed GeinEd GeinEdward Theodore "Ed" Gein - July 26, 1984) was an American murderer and body snatcher. His crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety after authorities discovered Gein had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes...
- P. T. BarnumP. T. BarnumPhineas Taylor Barnum was an American showman, businessman, scam artist and entertainer, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the circus that became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus....
- Gertrude BaniszewskiGertrude BaniszewskiGertrude Nadine Baniszewski , also known as Gertrude Wright and Nadine van Fossan, was an Indiana divorcée who, with the aid of most of her own children and neighborhood children, such as Ricky Hobbs and Coy Hubbard, oversaw and facilitated the prolonged torture, mutilation, and eventual murder of...
- Jonathan Shaw (Tattooist)Jonathan Shaw (tattooist)Jonathan D. Shaw is a New York-born tattoo artist and writer, best known for his innovative tribal tattoos in the early nineties and his contributions as founder and managing editor of International Tattoo Art Magazine for several years...
- Paul Massaro (Artist/Tattooist)
Book Covers
Coleman's work has been featured on the covers of many books including:- Apocalypse Culture
- Apocalypse Culture II
- Muzzlers, Guzzlers, and Good Yeggs
- The Mystery of Wolverine Woo-Bait
- Under the Empire of the Birds
- You Can't Win
Pranks
His pranks — including appearing to blow himself up and medieval-style geekGeek
The word geek is a slang term, with different meanings ranging from "a computer expert or enthusiast" to "a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to...
antics — have been documented in the Pranks! volume of RE/Search
RE/Search
RE/Search Publications is an American magazine and book publisher, based in San Francisco, founded and edited by Andrea Juno and V. Vale in 1980. It was the successor to Vale's earlier punk rock fanzine Search & Destroy , and was started with $100 from Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti...
, along with the works of some of his contemporaries such as Boyd Rice
Boyd Rice
Boyd Blake Rice is an American experimental sound/noise musician using the name of NON since the mid-1970s, archivist, actor, photographer, author, member of the Partridge Family Temple religious group, co-founder of the UNPOP art movement and current staff writer for Modern Drunkard...
.
Interests
Coleman is an avid enthusiast for weird, dark American culture and a serious collector of sideshowSideshow
In America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, carnival, fair or other such attraction.- Types of attractions :There are four main types of classic sideshow attractions:...
oddities. He's a patron of Johnny Fox
Johnny Fox (performer)
Johnny Fox is a professional sword swallower and sleight of hand expert.-Early life:Fox grew up in Hartford, Connecticut, and saw his first sword swallower at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Massachusetts, when he was eight or nine years old...
's Freakatorium in New York City (where he lives) and was a supporter and good friend of the late rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
eccentric
Eccentricity (behavior)
In popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behavior on the part of an individual. This behavior would typically be perceived as unusual or unnecessary, without being demonstrably maladaptive...
Hasil Adkins
Hasil Adkins
Hasil Adkins was an Appalachian country, rock and roll, and blues musician, though he was frequently considered rockabilly and sometimes primitive jazz...
. He also acted in Black Hearts Bleed Red, a 1992 film adaptation of Flannery O'Connor
Flannery O'Connor
Mary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short-story writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, O'Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries...
's short story A Good Man Is Hard To Find
A Good Man Is Hard To Find
A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by American author Flannery O'Connor. The collection was first published in 1955...
, made by New York independent film director Jeri Cain Rossi, and also in Scarlet Diva
Scarlet Diva
Scarlet Diva is a 2000 Italian movie by actress and first time director and writer Asia Argento.The film won a Williamsburg Brooklyn Film Festival Award for Best New Director, which actually tied with two other films.-Plot summary:...
, Asia Argento
Asia Argento
Aria Asia Anna Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento is an Italian actress, singer, model and director.-Family and early life:...
's 2003 film debut as director.
External links
- JoeColeman.com
- Coleman Gets a Retrospective at the Tilton Gallery in Manhattan in The New York Times
- AT HOME WITH -- Joe Coleman; Saints and Monsters in The New York Times
- "The Horrible Happy Life of Joe Coleman" in Los Angeles CityBeatLos Angeles CityBeatLos Angeles CityBeat was an alternative weekly newspaper in Los Angeles, California, debuting June 12, 2003. The publication ceased production with the March 26, 2009 issue. LA CityBeat was available every Thursday at more than 1,500 distribution locations throughout the Los Angeles area, with an...
, 17 December 2003 - Jeri Cain Rossi's 1992 film "Black Hearts Bleed Red" starring Joe Coleman
- Short piece from showhistory.com on Joe Coleman's role as modern day "Geek"
- Interview with Joe Coleman: A Look Inside an Infernal Machine!!
- Joe Coleman in Bizarre (magazine)Bizarre (magazine)Bizarre is a British alternative magazine published from 1997 to the present. It is currently published by Dennis Publishing; it is a sister publication to the Fortean Times.-Content:...
- Joe Coleman by Jack SargeantJack SargeantJack Sargeant is a writer specialising in cult film, underground film, and independent film, as well as subcultures, true crime, and other aspects of the unusual. In addition he is a film programmer and an academic...
in Bizarre (magazine)Bizarre (magazine)Bizarre is a British alternative magazine published from 1997 to the present. It is currently published by Dennis Publishing; it is a sister publication to the Fortean Times.-Content:... - From the Sideshow to the Bigtop: Joe Coleman by Rebecca Lieb in Raw Vision
- Welcome to the dark and happy world of Joe Coleman. Interview by Fascineshion.
- Joe Coleman Auto-Portrait