Joe Coleman (painter)
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Joseph Coleman (born November 22, 1955) is an American painter, illustrator actor and
performance artist Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
. He has been described as the "walking ghost of Old America" by his wife, photographer Whitney Ward, for his over-riding interest in the historical arcana and personae that often populate his paintings. Of Coleman's work, the New York Times wrote that, “If
P. T. Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum (; July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician, remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus (1871–2017) with James Anthony Bailey. He was ...
had hired Breughel or Bosch to paint sideshow banners, they might have resembled the art of Joe Coleman.” While Berlin's ''
Tagesspiegel ''Der Tagesspiegel'' (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington D.C. and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, s ...
'' said of Coleman, "Like eorgeGrosz in the 1920s, he holds a drastic mirror up to his own times.""The Walking Ghost of Old America – Cartoon Kittens, Serial Killers, Lovers and Literary Lions: Joe Coleman Paints a Journey Through His Labyrinthine Mind"
''Wall Street Journal'' (28 October 2010).

''New York Times" (03 September 2006).''

''Der Tagesspiegel" (26 May 2007).''
Coleman lives and works in
Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. His apartment and studio, called the ''Odditorium'', is a living museum to his obsessions; a collection of artifacts, objects and documents from wax museums, crime museums, churches, pathology museums and sideshows.


Early life

Coleman was born in
Norwalk, Connecticut , image_map = Fairfield County Connecticut incorporated and unincorporated areas Norwalk highlighted.svg , mapsize = 230px , map_caption = Location in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County and ...
to a World War II-veteran father and the daughter of a professional
prizefighter Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...
. Coleman's birth date (11/22/55) and childhood home address (99 Ward Street), which all feature palindromic numbers, has fed a lifelong obsession with duality, reflection and symmetry that is represented in his work; as in his 1994 painting ''Mommy/Daddy'', a split portrait of his parents as two halves of the same body, standing over an image of his childhood home and the grave in which they are both buried. Coleman’s mother was a devout Catholic and, as a child, Coleman spent many hours in church. He would draw the stations of the cross in pencil using red crayon to represent the blood of the saints and Christ. Around age 5, his mother gave him a book of paintings by
Hieronymous Bosch Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ;  – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oak ...
. Also obsessed with comics, especially
EC Comics Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-195 ...
, he began drawing his own. He has said his first collector was
Lady Bird Johnson Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson (''née'' Taylor; December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 as the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson. She previously served as Second Lady from 1961 to 1963 when ...
, who bought a painting he made of garbage in 1965 for a children's art collection, as part of her ‘beautification’ campaign."The Roving Eye by Anthony Haden-Guest"
''Artnet" (09 November 1999).''
In 1973 he moved to New York and supported himself by driving a cab. “Times Square was a red light district,” said Coleman. “I was a taxi driver back then, like
Travis Bickle Travis Bickle is a fictional character and the anti-hero protagonist of the 1976 film ''Taxi Driver'' directed by Martin Scorsese. The character was created by the film's screenwriter Paul Schrader. He is played by Robert De Niro, who received an ...
, but the stuff I saw in my taxi was way worse than that movie.” The street life he saw behind the wheel bled into his paintings and artwork from this period, which he described as ‘human-scapes’."Joe Coleman: The Devil and Design in the Details"
''Juxtapoz" (04 March 2017).''


Career


Early work

In 1977, he self-published two mini-comix and produced a portfolio of ten graphite on paper drawings (''The Joe Coleman Portfolio'') that with its depictions of outsiders, freak shows and both historical and present day tableau, showing life in all its raw, unfiltered, gory detail, set the tone, style and subject matter of his later work. His first professionally published work appeared in issues of ''Bizarre Sex'' and ''Dope Comix'', two underground comics titles published by
Kitchen Sink Press Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in hardcov ...
. He attended the
School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...
(SVA) in New York for two years. While at SVA he started performing with punk band The Steel Tips, who were immortalized in an early 1979 painting, styled as a sideshow banner. The Steel Tips played at
CBGB CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for '' Country'', '' BlueGrass'', and '' Blues'', Kri ...
, as well as in strip clubs, a prison, an insane asylum, and a benefit for female alcoholics held in a church. In 1982, Coleman self-published a full-length comic book, ''The Mystery of Wolverine Woo-Bait''.


Paintings

Taken as a whole, Joe Coleman's body of paintings presents an ongoing exegesis of his life, influences, obsessions, family and friends with a particular focus on the pathological and the psychological, the sacred and the profane, pop culture and high art, and the inter-relations between them. He has painted portraits of a broad range of figures, both historical and contemporary, that include saints and sinners, writers (
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
, Louis-Ferdinand Celine), artists (
George Grosz George Grosz (; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objec ...
,
Adolf Wolfli Adolf (also spelt Adolph or Adolphe, Adolfo and when Latinised Adolphus) is a given name used in German-speaking countries, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Flanders, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Latin America and to a lesser extent in vari ...
), madmen (
Charles Manson Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loca ...
), actors (
Leo Gorcey Leo Bernard Gorcey (June 3, 1917– June 2, 1969) was an American stage and film actor, famous for portraying the leader of a group of hooligans known variously as the Dead End Kids, the East Side Kids and, as adults, The Bowery Boys. Gorcey was ...
,
Jayne Mansfield Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer; April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967) was an American actress, singer, nightclub entertainer, and ''Playboy'' Playmate. A sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s while under contract at 20th Century Fox, Man ...
), murderers (
Ed Gein Edward Theodore Gein (; August 27, 1906 – July 26, 1984), also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer and body snatcher. Gein's crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, ga ...
,
Mary Bell Mary Flora Bell (born 26 May 1957) is an English woman who, as a juvenile, murdered two preschool-age boys in Benwell and Scotswood, Scotswood, an inner suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1968. Bell committed her first murder when she was 10 yea ...
,
Albert Fish Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish (May 19, 1870 – January 16, 1936) was an American serial killer, Rape, rapist, child molestation, child molester, and cannibalism, cannibal who committed at least three child murders from July 1924 to June 1 ...
), musicians (
Hasil Adkins Hasil Adkins (April 29, 1937 – April 26, 2005) was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His genres include rock and roll, country, blues and more commonly rockabilly, and because of his unusual playing and singing style, ...
,
Hank Williams Hank Williams (born Hiram Williams; September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, he reco ...
,
Captain Beefheart Don Van Vliet (; born Don Glen Vliet; January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. Conducting a rotating ensemble known as Th ...
), visionaries, freaks (
Johnny Eck John Eckhardt Jr, (August 27, 1911 – January 5, 1991), professionally billed as Johnny Eck, was an American freak show performer in sideshows and a film actor. Born with sacral agenesis, Eck is best known today for his role in Tod Browning' ...
,
Joseph Merrick Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August 1862 – 11 April 1890), often erroneously called John Merrick, was an English man known for having severe deformities. He was first exhibited at a freak show under the stage name "the Elephant Man" and then wen ...
a.k.a. the Elephant Man). He has also painted portraits of obscure or controversial figures in American history (
Boston Corbett Thomas H. "Boston" Corbett (January 29, 1832 – presumed dead September 1, 1894) was an American Union Army soldier who shot and killed U.S. president Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Corbett was initially arrested for disob ...
; abolitionist
John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid in Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...
; Swift Runner, a Cree Indian in the thrall of Wendigo psychosis). Over the years, he has also painted portraits of many of his closest friends, including tattoo artist, writer, and painter
Jonathan Shaw Jonathan Shaw may refer to: * Jonathan Shaw (British Army officer) (born 1957) * Jonathan Shaw (cricketer) (born 1980), English cricketer * Jonathan Shaw (photographer), British photographer and educator * Jonathan Shaw (politician) (born 1966), Br ...
, and motorcycle builder and stunt rider Indian Larry. He has also produced many self-portraits and numerous portraits of his wife and muse Whitney Ward. The portrait paintings in particular are the fruit of Coleman's voluminous research into his subjects, which he has often compared to an archeological dig to excavate their true nature. The portraits take the form of a large central figure surrounded by depictions of episodes in the lives of his subjects that contributed to the development of their pathology, and influenced the drives and motivations that determine the course of their lives. Coleman did the original artwork for the posters for the movies '' Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'' and ''
Charles Manson Superstar ''Charles Manson Superstar'' is a documentary film about Charles Manson, directed by Nikolas Schreck in 1989. Most of the documentary (the entire interview) was filmed inside San Quentin Prison. Nikolas and Zeena Schreck narrated the segments whi ...
''. He paints mainly using acrylic on wood panel, using a one-hair brush and viewing his work through jeweler's goggles. The smooth surface of the wood panel allows him to paint to an extraordinary level of microscopic detail. Through this painstaking process, he is able to paint an average of one square-inch a day. Coleman does not make sketches or preparatory drawings of his paintings before embarking on them. The paintings usually begin from one detail and grow almost organically. It takes Coleman between one and four years to complete a single painting. There is a ritualistic aspect to his work and the process by which he completes it. The frames of his paintings are often decorated with symbols from his own personal iconography to contain the forces within. Sometimes items of clothing or other artifacts related to his subject matter are appended to the painting.


Patrons

Rather than sell his work through galleries and the art establishment, Coleman has long relied on a system of patronage common during the medieval and Renaissance periods that inform his work. He has long-standing personal relationships with collectors of paintings, who are often able to view the work-in-progress that they will acquire. His collectors have included Mickey Cartin,
Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...
,
Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...
,
Jim Jarmusch James Robert Jarmusch (; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director and screenwriter. He has been a major proponent of independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films including '' Stranger Than Paradise'' (1984), '' Down by Law'' ( ...
, Leonardo DiCaprio, D.B. Doghouse,
H.R. Giger Hans Ruedi Giger ( ; ; 5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as " biomechanical". Giger later abandoned airbrush for pastels, mark ...
, and Adam and Flora Hanft.


Exhibitions

The first exhibitions of Coleman's paintings were held at Lower East Side and Soho art galleries, ''Wooster'', ''Chronocide'', ''Limbo'' and ''Civilian Warfare'', in 1986 and 1987. Chronocide's Bob Behrens would become Coleman's first dealer.
Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
curator David Owsley, whom Coleman had met after picking him up his cab, bought a piece from one of his shows at Chronicide and hung it next to a Breughel in his collection. Owsley would also introduce Coleman to Mickey Cartin, who became the biggest collector of his work and convinced him to stop driving a cab and devote himself to painting full-time. In the late ’80s and early ‘90s, Coleman had solo shows at Psychedelic Solution in
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
and Billy Shire's gallery,
La Luz de Jesus La Luz de Jesus Gallery is a commercial art gallery located in Los Angeles, California. It is closely associated with the Lowbrow Art Movement, Kustom Kulture, and pop surrealism. History La Luz de Jesus Gallery was established in 1986 in Lo ...
, on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. His first European show was held in 1998 at London's The Horse Hospital, formerly a Victorian-era stable to house the sick horses of cab drivers. In 2006, Coleman had a mid-career retrospective at New York's Jack Tilton Gallery entitled ''Joe Coleman: 30 Paintings and a Selection from the Odditorium'', curated by Steven Holmes. Among those who saw it were French journalist Clement Dirie who arranged for the show to travel to the
Palais de Tokyo The Palais de Tokyo (''Tokyo Palace'') is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, facing the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs to ...
in Paris, in March 2007, and German curator
Susanne Pfeffer Susanne may refer to: *Susanne (given name), a feminine given name (including a list of people with the name) *, later USS ''SP-411'', a United States Navy patrol boat in commission from 1917 to 1919 *, the proposed name and designation for a vess ...
, who invited Coleman to exhibit at the K-W Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin and commissioned
David Woodard David Woodard (, ; born April 6, 1964) is an American conductor and writer. During the 1990s he coined the term ''prequiem'', a portmanteau of preemptive and requiem, to describe his Buddhist practice of composing dedicated music to be rendered d ...
to pen an essay for the accompanying catalog. For the K-W Institute show, now entitled ''Joe Coleman: Internal Digging'', Pfeffer expanded the exhibit, to include all aspects of Coleman's work, as a painter, performance artist and also as a curator of the Odditorium, his personal museum. Taking over all four floors of the K-W Institute, visitors entered the show by walking into a cavernous ground floor space occupied by the sights and sounds of the Odditorium, largely housed in three German circus wagons. Each subsequent floor featured a different aspect of Coleman's oeuvre. Musician, actor, and outsider artist
Bruno S. Bruno Schleinstein (2 June 1932 – 11 August 2010), often credited as Bruno S., was a German film actor, artist, and musician. He is known internationally for his roles in two films directed by Werner Herzog, '' The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser'' (1 ...
, the star of
Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with un ...
's '' Stroszek'', was personally invited by Coleman to play the dinner following the exhibition's public vernissage. The K-W Institute show is the largest and most comprehensive exhibition to date of Coleman's work. New York's Dickinson Gallery exhibited a number of Coleman's paintings together with paintings by
Hans Memling Hans Memling (also spelled Memlinc; c. 1430 – 11 August 1494) was a painter active in Flanders, who worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. He was born in the Middle Rhine region and probably spent his childhood in Mainz. He ...
and other 15th century
early Netherlandish Early Netherlandish painting, traditionally known as the Flemish Primitives, refers to the work of artists active in the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period. It flourished especiall ...
painters, in a 2008 show entitled ''Devotio Moderno: Joe Coleman/Northern Primitives'', to draw attention to both the devotional aspect and use of religious and a personal iconography in Coleman's paintings. The show included the 1999 painting, ''The Book of Revelations'', which depicted Coleman and his wife Whitney Ward, encircled by a rainbow and riding atop a demon. They are surrounded on either side by friends and family who attended their wedding at the
American Visionary Art Museum The American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) is an art museum located in Baltimore, Maryland's Federal Hill neighborhood at 800 Key Highway Maryland Route 2 (MD 2) is the longest state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The route runs fro ...
in Baltimore, while their symbolizing enemies are pitching into the fires of hell below them. The frame of the painting is adorned with blood-stained pages of the
Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of R ...
from a miniature bible. Two years later, in 2010, Dickinson put on a solo show by Joe Coleman, ''Autoportrait'', that included the first public viewing of ''Doorway To Joe'', a life-size self-portrait Coleman had painted over the course of four years. ''Doorway to Joe'' was exhibited again, with its companion painting ''Doorway to Whitney'', a life-size portrait of Whitney Ward, completed in 2015, and unveiled at Unrealism, a show of figurative art curated by
Jeffrey Deitch Jeffrey Deitch (pronounced ''DIE-tch'';Mike Boehm (January 12, 2010)L.A.'s MOCA picks art dealer Jeffrey Deitch as director''Los Angeles Times''. born 1952) is an American art dealer and curator. He is best known for his gallery Deitch Projects ( ...
and
Larry Gagosian Lawrence Gilbert "Larry" Gagosian (born April 19, 1945) is an American art dealer who owns the Gagosian Gallery chain of art galleries. Working in concert with collectors including Douglas S. Cramer, Eli Broad, and Keith Barish, he developed a r ...
at Art Basel Miami in December 2015. The two paintings also formed the center-piece of another large retrospective of Coleman's work, entitled ''Doorway to Joe'', held in 2017 at the Begovitch Gallery,
California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...
.


Performance art

In the late 1970s Coleman developed a carnival geek/ mad preacher persona for his early performances called Professor Mombooze-o—a name that was an amalgamation of his mother (‘Mom’) and father (‘Booze-0’). Professor Mombooze-o, who was depicted in a 1986 painting, would appear in performance spaces in NY's Lower East Side and, while ranting as a madman preacher, would bite the heads off of live mice and explode on stage. On October 22, 1989, Coleman staged a performance as Professor Mombooze-o at the Boston Film/Video Foundation (BF/VF). It began with 20 minutes of black and white vintage porn projected onto a screen, at the end of which Coleman burst through the screen hanging upside down on a harness and screaming as fireworks strapped to his chest exploded, like a baby born through a trial of fire and brimstone. After his then-wife Nancy Pivar cut him down, as if cutting the umbilical chord, and extinguished the fire, Coleman ripped the rest of screen apart to reveal a dead goat also hanging upside down. He then pulled two live white mice from his pocket, announcing, 'This is Mommy and Daddy'. He proceeded to bite the head off 'Daddy' and spit it into the audience. Then did the same to 'Mommy', but swallowed the head. "This is Joe Coleman's stone ritualization of his mother's death," a 1990 article in Spin magazine reported about the performance. "Four days earlier, she had died of cancer." Fittingly, this would be the last ever appearance of Professor Mombooze-o. When police and fireman arrived on the scene, they arrested Coleman, Pivar and BF/VF manager, Jeri Rossi. Coleman was charged under an arcane statute, which had not been used since the 1800s, citing him for "possession of an infernal machine". He was fined $5000 for possessing and exploding fireworks and a further $300 for eating mice. The terms of his probation stipulated that he "not eat any Massachusetts mice for a year". Since 2017, Coleman has embarked on a series of spoken word performances accompanied by projections of the paintings. These have taken place in June 2017 at Salo Club, Paris, during three nights curated by director and actress,
Asia Argento Asia Argento (; born Aria Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento; 20 September 1975) is an Italian actress and filmmaker. The daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento, she has had roles in several of her father's features and achieved mainstream success with a ...
, as part of a show with
Lydia Lunch Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...
and Weasel Walter's Brutal Measures project at Club Berlin in New York and in November 2017 as part of
Le Guess Who? Le Guess Who? is a Dutch music festival featuring different music genres: from avant-garde, jazz, hip hop, electronic, experimental, noise rock, indie rock, world music and others. The festival, founded by Bob van Heur and Johan Gijsen, has ...
festival in Utrecht, Netherlands.


Film

Alongside his performance art, Joe Coleman has also appeared as an occasional actor, often playing the kind of misfits, outsiders, monsters and murderers who populate his paintings. In the early 1980s while attending the
School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...
, he contributed to several avant-garde films by
Manuel DeLanda Manuel DeLanda (born 1952) is a Mexican- American writer, artist and philosopher who has lived in New York since 1975. He is a lecturer in architecture at the Princeton University School of Architecture and the University of Pennsylvania School ...
, as a writer and actor, including ''Incontinence: A Diarrhetic Flow of Mismatches'' and ''Raw Nerves: A Lacanian Thriller''. Coleman appeared in two shorts associated with the Lower East Side film movement, the
Cinema of Transgression __notoc__ The Cinema of Transgression is a term coined by Nick Zedd in 1985 to describe a New York City-based underground film movement, consisting of a loose-knit group of artists using shock value and black humor in their films. Key players in ...
. playing a serial killer in Jeri Cain Rossi's 1992 short film, ''Black Hearts Bleed Red'', an adaptation of
Flannery O'Connor Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer who often ...
's short story ''
A Good Man Is Hard To Find ''A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories'' (published in the United Kingdom as ''The Artificial Nigger and Other Tales'') is a collection of short stories by American author Flannery O'Connor. The collection was first published in 1955. The ...
'', and Satan (to
Sid Vicious John Simon Ritchie (10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979), better known by his stage name Sid Vicious, was an English musician, best known as the bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols. Despite dying in 1979 at age 21, he remains an icon of the ...
bodyguard Rockets Redglare's portrayal of Jesus) in Tommy Turner and David Wojnarowicz's ''Where Evil Dwells,'' based on the 1984 murder of
Ricky Kasso Richard Allan "Ricky" Kasso Jr. (March 29, 1967 – July 7, 1984), also known as The Acid King, was an American killer who murdered his 17-year-old friend Gary Lauwers in Northport, New York on June 19, 1984. Two other teens, Jimmy Troiano and Al ...
. He played producer Barry Paar, a thinly veiled depiction of
Harvey Weinstein Harvey Weinstein (; born March 19, 1952) is an American former film producer and convicted sex offender. He and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films inclu ...
, in
Asia Argento Asia Argento (; born Aria Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento; 20 September 1975) is an Italian actress and filmmaker. The daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento, she has had roles in several of her father's features and achieved mainstream success with a ...
's 1998 loosely autobiographical directorial debut, ''
Scarlet Diva ''Scarlet Diva'' is a 2000 Italian film by actress and first-time director and screenwriter Asia Argento. Plot summary ''Scarlet Diva'' is a semi-autobiographical film about the Italian actress and director Asia Argento's life as an actress. A sel ...
'', in a scene based on her alleged 1997 rape by Weinstein at the
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
. Coleman had a cameo as
John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...
in
Dan Fogler Daniel Kevin Fogler (born October 20, 1976) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He has appeared in films including '' Balls of Fury'', '' Good Luck Chuck'', ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'', '' Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Gr ...
and Michael Canzoniero's 2014 feature, ''
Don Peyote ''Don Peyote'' is a 2014 American comedy film written and directed by Dan Fogler and Michael Canzoniero. It stars Fogler as a slacker who has a spiritual awakening and becomes obsessed with conspiracy theories. Plot Warren (Dan Fogler) is an ...
'', a reimagining of ''
Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...
'' as a stoner comedy, alongside a cast that included
Anne Hathaway Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Anne Hathaway, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Awar ...
,
Annabella Sciorra Annabella Gloria Philomena Sciorra ( , ; born March 29, 1960) is an American actress. She came to prominence with her film debut in '' True Love'' (1989), earning an Independent Spirit nomination for Best Female Lead. Subsequent projects include ...
,
Abel Ferrara Abel Ferrara (born July 19, 1951) is an American filmmaker, known for the provocative and often controversial content in his movies and his use of neo-noir imagery and gritty urban settings. A long-time independent filmmaker, some of his best kn ...
,
Topher Grace Christopher John Grace ( ; born July 12, 1978) is an American actor. He is known for portraying Eric Forman in the Fox sitcom ''That '70s Show'', Eddie Brock / Venom in Sam Raimi's film ''Spider-Man 3'', Pete Monash in ''Win a Date with Tad Ham ...
and
Wallace Shawn Wallace Michael Shawn (born November 12, 1943) is an American actor, playwright, and essayist. His film roles include Wally Shawn (a fictionalized version of himself) in '' My Dinner with Andre'' (1981), Vizzini in ''The Princess Bride'' (1987), ...
. In 2016 Coleman appeared as the title character in ''The Cruel Tale of the Medicine Man'', alongside contemporary sideshow and burlesque performers including Mat Fraser and
Julie Atlas Muz Julie Atlas Muz (born Julie Ann Muz on May 30, 1973) is a New York City-based performance artist, dancer, burlesque artist, stage director, and actress. In 2012, she married English actor Mat Fraser. Muz is best known as a performer in the New Y ...
, directed by James Habacker, founder of New York City
neo-burlesque Neo-Burlesque, or New Burlesque, is the revival and updating of the traditional American burlesque performance. Though based on the traditional burlesque art, the new form encompasses a wider range of performance styles; neo-burlesque acts can r ...
venue, The Slipper Room. He has also appeared in a number of documentaries, including films about two subjects of his paintings,
Albert Fish Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish (May 19, 1870 – January 16, 1936) was an American serial killer, Rape, rapist, child molestation, child molester, and cannibalism, cannibal who committed at least three child murders from July 1924 to June 1 ...
and
Carl Panzram Charles "Carl" Panzram (June 28, 1891 – September 5, 1930) was an American serial killer, spree killer, mass murderer, rap ist, child molester, arsonist, robber, thief, and burglar. In prison confessions and in his autobiography, Panzr ...
. A performance by Professor Mombooze-o was featured in Harvey Nikolai Keith's 1988 documentary ''
Mondo New York ''Mondo New York'' is a 1988 Mondo film directed by Harvey Nikolai Keith. The documentary film was inspired by the 1963 movie '' Mondo Cane''. Overview ''Mondo New York'' examines the lives and activities of Manhattan performance artists, and fea ...
'', about the NYC underground art and music scene. The film also featured
Lydia Lunch Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...
,
Phoebe Legere Phoebe Hemenway Legere is a multi-disciplinary artist. She is a Juilliard-educated composer, soprano, pianist and accordionist, painter, poet, and a film maker. A graduate of Vassar College with a four octave vocal range, Legere has recorded fo ...
, Ann Magnuson, Emilio Cubeiro and
Joey Arias Joey Arias is an American artist based in New York City, best known for work as a performance artist, cabaret singer, and drag artist, but also as a published author, comedian, stage persona and film actor. He also goes by the names Joseph Ar ...
. Coleman was also the subject of ''R.I.P: Rest in Pieces'', a 1999 feature documentary by filmmaker Robert Adrien Pejo. In one of the film's set pieces, he is shown performing an autopsy on a woman performed in
Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
, Hungary under the guidance of medical examiner Janos Keser, and later in the film visiting rockabilly icon,
Hasil Adkins Hasil Adkins (April 29, 1937 – April 26, 2005) was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His genres include rock and roll, country, blues and more commonly rockabilly, and because of his unusual playing and singing style, ...
, (whom Coleman had previously made the subject of a 1993 painting) in his West Virginia home, and being interviewed by filmmaker
Jim Jarmusch James Robert Jarmusch (; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director and screenwriter. He has been a major proponent of independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films including '' Stranger Than Paradise'' (1984), '' Down by Law'' ( ...
in a church. 2001 “Outsider Art /Music” at the
Barbican Theatre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibi ...
, London, England presented two films created by Coleman featuring his paintings. The first film called ''Humanscapes'', was accompanied by the music of
Carlo Gesualdo Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa ( – 8 September 1613) was Prince of Venosa and Count of Conza. As a composer he is known for writing madrigals and pieces of sacred music that use a chromatic language not heard again until the late 19th century ...
, Coleman's favorite medieval composer and performed by a live choir, The Clerk's Group. The second film called ''Portraits'', was accompanied by specially composed music performed live by
The Delgados The Delgados are a Scottish indie rock band formed in Glasgow in 1994. The band is composed of Alun Woodward (vocals, guitar), Emma Pollock (vocals, guitar), Stewart Henderson (bass guitar), and Paul Savage (drums). Biography The band was fo ...
. A similar performance was presented at the Bergen International Festival in 2002 with an original score composed by the Norwegian band, Motorpsycho (band), Motorpsycho. Joe Coleman & his wife, Whitney Ward are the subjects of a new feature-length documentary film currently in production, entitled ''Doorway to Joe'', directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, Scott Gracheff.


Monographs

*''Cosmic Retribution: The Infernal Art of Joe Coleman'' by Joe Coleman (Fantagraphics, 1992, paperback, ; Feral House, 1993, hardcover, ). *''The Man of Sorrows'' by Joe Coleman (Gates of Heck, 1993, hardcover, ; republished in 1998). *''Original Sin: The Visionary Art of Joe Coleman'' by Joe Coleman, John Yau,
Jim Jarmusch James Robert Jarmusch (; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director and screenwriter. He has been a major proponent of independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films including '' Stranger Than Paradise'' (1984), '' Down by Law'' ( ...
, Harold Schechter, and Katharine Gates (Heck Editions, 1997, paperback, ). *''The Book of Joe'' by Joe Coleman, Anthony Haden-Guest, Katharine Gates,
Asia Argento Asia Argento (; born Aria Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento; 20 September 1975) is an Italian actress and filmmaker. The daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento, she has had roles in several of her father's features and achieved mainstream success with a ...
, Rebecca Lieb, and Jack Sargeant (writer), Jack Sargeant (Last Gasp (publisher), Last Gasp/La Luz de Jesus Press, 2003, hardcover, ). *''Joe Coleman: Internal Digging'' by Joe Coleman,
Susanne Pfeffer Susanne may refer to: *Susanne (given name), a feminine given name (including a list of people with the name) *, later USS ''SP-411'', a United States Navy patrol boat in commission from 1917 to 1919 *, the proposed name and designation for a vess ...
,
David Woodard David Woodard (, ; born April 6, 1964) is an American conductor and writer. During the 1990s he coined the term ''prequiem'', a portmanteau of preemptive and requiem, to describe his Buddhist practice of composing dedicated music to be rendered d ...
, Markus Müller (:de:Buchhandlung Walther König, Walther König, 2008, paperback, ).


References


External links

*
Robert-Adrien Pejo's 1992 documentary about Joe Coleman, "R.I.P: Rest in Pieces"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, Joe 1955 births 20th-century American painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists American male painters American performance artists American taxi drivers Fantastic art Living people People from Norwalk, Connecticut 20th-century American male artists