I was invited to the first major show in Paris by the Amercian artists Joe Coleman at the Palais de Tokyo.
Aged 6 Joe was placed into a special 1st Grade class for emotionally disturbed, disabled and retarded children. Two years later he drew his first pictures of bleeding saints, death by fire and stabbing. He paints using a magnifying glass because he works in minute detail.
The content is influenced by the darkside of American culture mixed with the freakiness of sideshow oddities. His narrative is easy to follow but for many, the nightmares might be difficult to forget.
Joe is not just a figurative artists but a showman, a ring master with his statuesque wife Whitney Ward by his side, all that was missing was a top hat (and whip - WW is a fetish queen).
