Joe Coleman

About

Joe Coleman, born Joseph Coleman on November 22, 1955, in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American painter, illustrator, writer, performer, and underground comix artist raised in an Irish Catholic family marked by a violent, alcoholic father and a mother excommunicated from the church. His early life, filled with unpredictable danger and survival themes, profoundly influenced his art, which explores the holiness of violence, suffering, freak shows, and human extremes. As a child, he drew bloody scenes of the stations of the cross using only a red crayon, and later exhibited pyromaniac tendencies, such as setting a school field on fire. In third grade, his painting of garbage won recognition in a children's art show attended by Lady Bird Johnson, marking his first collector.

Hyper-detailed visionary outsider painting with single-hair brushstrokes and jewelers’ lenses, focusing on portraits of historical figures, freaks, criminals, and self-portraits rich in microscopic narrative details