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.

The Man of Sorrows (1993)
1993

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

houdini_0
1993

Acrylic on panel, mounted on priest’s robe worn by Coleman during a performance, 28 x 22 in.

A Road Map of Jonathan Shaw (1993)
1993

Acrylic on panel, 22 x 28 in.

JE + ILL and Joe Coleman (1993)
1993

Acrylic on panel, 6 x 6 in.

A Descent Into the Maelstrom of Edgar Allan Poe (1993)
1993

Acrylic on panel, 28 x 22 in.

The Dream of Sigmund Freud (1993)
1993

Acrylic on panel, 28 x 22 in.

Portrait of Carl Panzram (1993)
1993

Acrylic on panel, 28 x 22 in.

Journey Into Céline (1993)
1993

Acrylic on panel, 22 x 28 in.

Portrait of the Elephant Man (1993)
1993

Acrylic on panel, 28 x 22 in.

imagetk
1992

Acrylic on panel, 20 x 26 in.

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