Joe Coleman: Internal Digging

Joe Coleman, who spends months and even years working on a single painting, has described his process as an “internal dig.” His complex, obsessive excavations, which dive into the often violent histories and biographies of subjects like Osama Bin Laden or Joan Collins, certainly create an idiosyncratic and dense experience for the viewer. Details are carefully rendered with tiny brushes on wood panels; they are so intricate that the viewer can easily get lost scrutinizing every inch of a painting and following meandering paths of narrative and abstraction. This volume contains interviews with the artist, essays and rich color images of Coleman’s paintings and installations. Internal Digging is the first complete overview of his work as a painter, draftsman, performance artist and collector.

Joe Coleman was born in 1955 in Norwalk, Connecticut, and lives and works in New York. His work has been exhibited at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, among other national and international venues.