Paintings

Coleman’s portraits create complete biographies by surrounding their subjects with interweavings of minuscule images and explanatory text. Artist and viewer embark on exploratory excavations of the subject’s life through the painting. Coleman’s jewel-box approach means that one experiences the paintings afresh at each viewing, uncovering ever more details and nuances that were previously undetected.

An admirer of Northern artists such as Bosch, Brueghel and Grunewald, Coleman employs the same attention to detail and delicate sense of scale, utilizing dual and single haired brushes in conjunction with magnifying lenses to create his refined masterpieces. Like those artists, Coleman also displays a propensity for the gruesome and grisly and often attempts to both dissect and glorify the terrible in many of his paintings, unmasking with brutal honesty the truth of human nature.

A comprehensive list of every Joe Coleman painting since 1978.
If you own a painting that we do not have here, please contact us.

Contact Andrew Edlin Gallery if you are interested in becoming a collector.

Mommy/Daddy (1994)
Mommy/Daddy
1994

Acrylic on panel, mounted on parents’ clothing, 28 x 22 in.

Miracles for Sale (1994)
Miracles for Sale [Tod Browning]
1994

Acrylic on panel, 22 x 28 in.

The Glory That Was Once New York (1994)
The Glory That Was Once New York
1994

Acrylic on panel, 22 x 28 in.

“Vietnamese Prostitutes” illustration for Hustler
1994

Acrylic on panel, 11 x 17 in.

Ecce Homo (1994)
Ecce Homo
1994

Acrylic on panel, 22 x 28 in.

Cruel to be Kind (1993)
Cruel to be Kind
1993

Acrylic on panel, 22 x 28 in.

Hasil Adkins: The Lone One (1993)
Hasil Adkins: The Lone One
1993

Acrylic on panel, 22 x 28 in.

Divine Comedy (1993)
Divine Comedy
1993

Acrylic on panel, 22 x 28 in.

Portrait of Paul Massaro
1993

Acrylic on panel, 14 x 11 in.

The Man of Sorrows (1993)
The Man of Sorrows
1993

Acrylic on panel, 28 x 22 in.
The subject of the 1993 book of the same name.

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