Joseph Coleman (born November 22, 1955) is an American painter, illustrator actor and performance artist. He has been described as the "walking ghost of Old America" by his wife, photographer Whitney Ward, for his over-riding interest in the historical arcana and personae that often populate his paintings. Of Coleman's work, the New York Times wrote that, “If P. T. Barnum had hired Breughel or Bosch to paint sideshow banners, they might have resembled the art of Joe Coleman.” While Berlin's "Tagesspiegel" said of Coleman, "Like in the 1920s, he holds a drastic mirror up to his own times."