BOAT PEOPLE,
1989
oil on wood
approx 36 X 48 inches
Collection of Craig Robins, Miami |
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CRAIG COLEMAN MOVIE CLIP : |
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Damian Rojo, a friend of Craig Coleman’s,
shot this four-second clip of Craig in South Beach
in the early 90s. He writes:
"I was walking down Washington Avenue and I
stopped Craig who was walking with a recently finished
portrait of Tara Solomon. I had my movie camera, so
a shirtless Craig stopped, put the painting down,
did a little twirl and struck a pose.”
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"Despite his brilliance, Craig
Coleman died penniless and unrecognized in December 1994."
Brilliant, sardonic, handsome, promiscuous and recklessly
creative, Craig Coleman personified the astonishing energy
of South Beach in the early 90s, a dynamic thrust that reversed
decades of decline and transformed a moribund 1930s resort
into a decadent, sub-tropical playground.
In that brief moment, South Beach was the world’s most fabulous
ghetto, a kaleidoscopic fantasy cove where Madonna, Jean-Paul
Gaultier and Versace could get wild with pumped-up muscle
boys and foxy transsexuals - in full public view but somehow
magically hidden from the spotlight’s glare.
This was the narcissistic, hedonistic world Coleman captured
so vividly and remorselessly in his art, a world of intoxication
and carnal excess, where Ecstasy-fuelled clubbers copulated
on nightclub dancefloors, and then took breakfast at the News
Café while supermodels on rollerblades glided past
the crumbling facades of Ocean Drive’s fading Art Deco hotels.
Despite his brilliance, Craig Coleman died penniless and
unrecognized in December 1994. And yet he had never been closer
to the fame he longed for and so richly deserved; at the time
of his death, his work was already being collected by world-renowned
gallerist Robert Miller, and over 200 of his artworks are held
by important collectors in New York and Miami — including Craig
Robins, his landlord and perhaps the city’s most influential
property developer.
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