1953
Jacqueline Hoban marries Joseph Coleman, Sr., and is excommunicated.

1955
Joe Coleman, Jr. born on 11/22/55 in Norwalk, CT.

1961
Placed into special First Grade class for emotionally disturbed and disabled children.

1963
Draws first pictures of bleeding saints, death by fire and stabbing.

1965
Wins art award from Lady Bird Johnson, wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson, for drawing of garbage, age ten.

1967
Sets fire in elementary school yard. "Confesses" to committing several murders, to a priest at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Norwalk, CT.

1972
Begins "party explosions" series of performances.

1975
First performances of The Steel Tips.

1976
Attends (briefly) School of Visual Arts, New York.
First publication, Bizarre Sex, Kitchen Sink Press, New York.

1977
The Joe Coleman Portfolio published by Bagginer Productions, New York.

1980
"Ten Year High School Reunion" piece (a.k.a. the Doug Sprag prank).

1981
First "art world" performance, at The Kitchen, New York.
Marries Nancy Pivar.

1982
Self publishes The Mystery of Woolverine Woobait.

1985
Begins exhibiting paintings at Limbo and Civilian Warfare galleries in the Lower East Side.

l986
Exhibitions at Wooster Gallery, Chronocide Gallery, Limbo and Civilian Warfare galleries, New York.

1987
Exhibition at Chronocide sells out. Victoria and Albert Museum curator David Owsley buys a piece and hangs it next to a Brueghel in his collection. Other shows at New York Academy of Art, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA.
Apocalypse Culture, with cover image by Coleman published by Amok Press, New York (revised edition by Feral House, Los Angeles, CA 1990).
Performance at Cuando Theater, New York.
Death of Joseph Coleman, Sr. of a massive heart attack.

1988
Performances at Yale University; The Goteborg Film Festival, Sweden; The Werkstattkino, Munich, Germany; Hotel Amazon, New York.
Exhibition at Todd Capp Gallery, New York.
Appears in shockumentary film, Mondo New York. Bob Barker has Coleman arrested for mousemunching. Kicks heroin.

1989
Exhibitions at La Luz de Jesus, Los Angeles, CA; Stockwell Gallery, New York. L.A.
Performance at The Bridge canceled by police. Coleman performs secretly by the light of car headlights at Venice Beach instead.
Creates painting for movie poster of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, which is later dropped by the film company for being too extreme.
Death of mother, Jacqueline Coleman, from lymphatic cancer and cancer of the pancreas and spleen. Kicks methadone.
Boston Film and Video Foundation performance. Coleman arrested for being an "Infernal Machine" (10/30/89).

1990
Nancy Pivar Coleman abandons marriage.
Infernal Machine picture-disk LP with color booklet, Steel Tips songs and oldtime murder music issued by Blast First Records. Coleman meets Dian Hanson.

1991
Exhibition at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.

1992
Exhibitions at Psychedelic Solution, New York; La Luz de Jesus, Los Angeles, CA.
Plays "The Misfit" in Black Hearts Bleed Red, an independent film by Jeri Cain Rossi.
Cosmic Retribution published by Fantagraphics Books and Feral House, Seattle, WA/Portland, OR.

1993
Cult Rapture exhibition at Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA.
The Man of Sorrows published by Gates of Heck, Inc., Richmond, VA.

1994
Moves from the Lower East Side of Manhattan to Brooklyn, NY.

1995
Raw Vision outsider art magazine features Coleman (Spring 1993, no. 11).
Coleman and Dian Hanson break up.

1997
R.I.P: Rest in Pieces, a documentary film about Coleman by Robert Pejo (Prisma Films) premieres at the Rotterdam Film Festival, The Netherlands.
The End is Near! exhibition at the American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD.
Ozone Gallery group show, New York.
Original Sin: The Visionary Art of Joe Coleman published by Heck editions, New York.

1998
Original Sin exhibition at The Horse Hospital, London, England (Coleman visits Scotland Yard's Black Museum by special invitation).
LOVE show at American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD.
Solo exhibition at Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Cover feature articles on Coleman in World Art and Poliester magazines. 1999
Joe Coleman: Matrix 139

solo exhibit at The Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, CT.
Odditorium show at Jim Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles, CA.
Cover feature article in Juxtapoz magazine.
Coleman celebrates 44th birthday on 11/22/99.

2000
Exploding Preacherman performance at Disinfo Conference, New York.
The Collectors, a documentary film about serial killer art collectors, featuring Coleman.
Coleman and Whitney Ward are married on 11/11/00 at The American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD.

2001
World Premiere of Scarlet Diva, a film by Asia Argento in which Coleman plays an unscrupulous Hollywood producer.
Hieronymus Bosch show, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Joe Coleman's Man of Sorrows painting is included.
War and Peace exhibition at The American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD.
Brooklyn 7l8 exhibition at Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Lake Worth, FL.
Someplace in Nowhere, Coleman's opera performed at the Barbican Theatre, London, England and at the Festspillenei Festival in Bergen, Norway. A film of Coleman's paintings accompanied by the music of The Delgados (London) and Motopsychos (Bergen).

2002
The Circus in Twentieth Century Art, The Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, CT
Wormhole at the Franz Hals Museum in Haarlem, The Netherlands
Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT.

2003
Doppelganger, a mockumentary about a Robert De Niro lookalike. Coleman plays a psychotic derelict who attempts to murder the lookalike, thinking he is the real actor.
The Book of Joe published by La Luz de Jesus Press and Last Gasp, Los Angeles, CA.

2004
R.I.P. Rest in Pieces DVD released by Disinformation Networks in the USA.

2005
Retinal Stigmatics. An Evening with Joe Coleman, a live multimedia midnight mass. Fantasia Festival, Montreal, Canada, July 15.
Muzzlers, Guzzlers and Good Yeggs published by Fantagraphics Books, Seattle, WA.

2006
Joe Coleman: 30 Paintings and a Selection from the Odditorium solo exhibition at Jack Tilton Gallery, New York City.
World Premiere of Memory of my Nervous Illness, a film by Julian Hobbs. Coleman plays Dr. Moritz Schraeben.
Strange (group show), Real Art Ways Hartford, CT

2007
Joe Coleman: 14 Paintings at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France.
Joe Coleman: Internal Digging solo exhibition at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany.
Internal Digging book published by KW Institute.

2008
Devotio Moderno: Joe Coleman/Northern Primitives at Dickinson Gallery, New York. Coleman's work shown alongside Masters of the Northern Renaissance.

2009
The Triptych in Modern Art show with Otto Dix at KunstMuseum Stuttgart Germany.
Man Son 69 - The Horror of the Situation group show at Hamburger Kunsthalle in Hamburg, Germany.
The Endless Renaissance group show at Bass Museum, Miami.
Bit Rare Fiend, a 42-second short directed by Coleman premieres in Beijing.

2010
Joe Coleman - Auto-Portrait solo show at Dickinson Gallery New York.
Houdini - Art and Magic show at The Jewish Museum in New York City.

2012
The Annual Exhibition at The National Academy Museum.
One on One at KW Institute Berlin

2013
Hey! Modern Art & Pop Culture Part II Halle Saint Pierre (11 paintings)
Raw Vision: 25 Years of Art Brut at Halle Saint Pierre.
Joe wins an Acker Award.

2014
Ninth Annual BLAB! show Copro Gallery, LA Sideshow at Yale University.
"Serial Killers, Country Music and Pickled Punks: Joe Coleman in Vignette" - a play inspired by Joe Coleman premieres.

2015
When the Curtain Never Comes Down - American Folk Art Museum, NY
Unrealism - Jeffrey Deitch Project, Miami Art Fair.
Cruel Tale of the Medicine Man - Feature film. Joe plays the title character
You Can't Win - Re-issued by Feral House Books.
Sideshow- Yale University Art Galleries

2016
Performance work featured in Clemens Marschall’s Avant-Garde From Below: Transgressive Performance from Iggy Pop to Joe Coleman and GG Allin, Rokko’s Adventures/Last Gasp Books"
Included in Alan Kaufman’s The Outlaw Bible of American Art, Last Gasp Books
Into the Night with Jim Rose and Joe Coleman, Arte TV, directed by Hasko Baumann
The Three Graces unveiled at Desire, Jeffrey Deitch and Larry Gagosian, Miami, FL

2017
Illustrated a project in collaboration with Tom Waits for Stories for Ways and Means by Jeff Antebi, Waxploitation, Los Angeles, CA
Doorway to Joe: The Art of Joe Coleman, retrospective exhibition at CSUF Begovich Gallery, Fullerton, CA
Spoken word performance at Asia Argento & Friends at Salo/Paris, Paris, France
Spoken word performance with Lydia Lunch at Berlin NYC, NY