Exhibitions

DEVOTIO MODERNO: JOE COLEMAN/NORTHERN PRIMITIVES
MAY 2ND – JUNE 15TH 2008

NEW YORK - Dickinson is delighted to present an exhibition of the work of Joe
Coleman alongside paintings by Northern Primitive artists. Joe Coleman's intricate and
visionary paintings defy classification with any contemporary school. Following the
recent travelling show in Berlin's KW institute and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Joe's
paintings have gained an ever increasing number of admirers. His fascination with
themes derived from religion and primitive painting, and his meticulous and detailed
style of unabashed realism, have led to numerous comparisons between his art and the
paintings of the northern renaissance. All his works are united by a very personal
autobiographical theme, and in many ways relate to the early primitive devotional
paintings. This exhibition allows admirers of Joe's work to see the imagery that
influences him, and provides a unique opportunity to see masterpieces of the northern
renaissance side by side with masterpieces by today's greatest "primitive" painter.
Similarly, seeing works by Memling and his contemporaries in this setting, gives us an
opportunity to truly appreciate their shameless realism, and the modernity of expression
they gave to religious work of the 15th century still provides a resonant critique of the
human condition today.

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