Joe Coleman (painter)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Joe Coleman (born November 22 1955) is an American illustrator and painter.
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Biography
He was born Joseph Coleman, Jr. in Norwalk, Connecticut to a World War II-veteran father and the daughter of a professional prizefighter. He was raised Roman Catholic.
Work
Coleman's subjects are pop icons of a sort who are often transgressive, criminal, and "outside" the mainstream radar. In some ways, much of his style makes reference to the Spanish-Mexican religious tradition that Frida Kahlo also drew upon; Coleman's work is sometimes reminiscent of Basil Wolverton's.
Pranks
His pranks — including appearing to blow himself up and medieval-style geek antics — have been documented in the Pranks! volume of Re/Search Books, along with the works of some of his contemporaries such as Boyd Rice.
Interests
Coleman is an avid enthusiast for weird, dark American culture and a serious collector of sideshow 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.
Subjects Coleman has portrayed
- Grover Bergdoll
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Boxcar Bertha
- Jack Black
- Albert Fish
- Harry Houdini
- Paul John Knowles
- Charles Manson
- David Owsley
- Hasil Adkins
- Carl Panzram
- Quantrill's Raiders
- Hank Williams
- Mary Bell
- Kip Kinkel
- Timothy McVeigh
- Edward Teller
- Indian Larry
- Celine
Book covers
Coleman's work has been featured on the covers of many books including:
- Apocalypse Culture
- You Can't Win
- The Mystery of Wolverine Woo-Bait
- Apocalypse Culture II
- Under the Empire of the Birds
Pages linking in in 2003
A Good Man Is Hard to Find (short story), A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, Arndt & Partner, BLAB!, Charles Manson Superstar, Clayton Patterson, Daniel Genis, Death Rattle (comics), Deathtripping, Disinformation (company), Disinformation (TV series), Geek show, Hate (The Delgados album), Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Hobo, Horror vacui (art), Horse Hospital, Indian Larry, Jacaeber Kastor, Jack Sargeant (writer), Jim Evans (artist), Joe Coleman, Jonathan Davis, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, La Luz de Jesus, List of Comics Journal interview subjects, Marc-Olivier Wahler, Michael J. Moynihan, Mondo New York, Olympian Publishing, Richard Metzger, Scarlet Diva, Thomas Negovan, Tura Satana, You Can't Win (book)
References
- Cosmic Retribution: The Infernal Art of Joe Coleman by Joe Coleman (Fantagraphics, 1992, paperback, ISBN 0-922915-06-7; Feral House, 1993, hardcover, ISBN 0-922915-13-X).
- The Man of Sorrows by Joe Coleman (Gates of Heck, 1993, hardcover, ISBN 0-9638129-0-4; republished in 1998).
- Original Sin: The Visionary Art of Joe Coleman by Joe Coleman, John Yau, Jim Jarmusch, Harold Schechter, and Katharine Gates (Heck Editions, 1997, paperback, ISBN 0-9638129-6-3).
- R.I.P., Rest in Pieces: A Portrait of Joe Coleman (1997, directed by Robert-Adrian Pejo, starring Joe Coleman and Jim Jarmusch, DVD).
- The Book of Joe by Joe Coleman, Anthony Haden-Guest, Katharine Gates, Asia Argento, Rebecca Lieb, and Jack Sargeant (Last Gasp/La Luiz de Jesus Press, 2003, hardcover, ISBN 0-86719-578-9).
- Muzzlers, Guzzlers, and Good Yeggs (Fantagraphics Books, 2005, hardcover, ISBN 1-56097-628-4).
