Announcing Your 2024 Mermaid Parade Royalty!
Whitney Ward and Joe Coleman
Photo Credit: Geoffrey Berliner/Penumbra Foundation
Coney Island USA is thrilled to announce that painter, performer, and sideshow historian Joe Coleman, with his wife and muse, artist/photographer Whitney Ward, will reign as King and Queen of the 42nd Annual Mermaid Parade on Saturday, June 22, 2024!
The Mermaid Parade is a unique, artistic celebration of ancient mythology and is considered the official start of the Coney Island summer season. The nation’s largest art parade attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to Brooklyn's amusement district.
For over 30 years, King Joe and Queen Whitney have been Mermaid Parade stalwarts, and frequent prize winners for Whitney’s over-the-top costumes.
“Coney Island has fascinated me since childhood, and has been the subject and inspiration for so many of my paintings and drawings,” says Coleman, “It has also driven me to become a historian and custodian of many of the arcane objects that have been responsible for transforming this part of Brooklyn into the magical dreamland it is. I consider being king of the Mermaid Parade one of the great honors of my life, second only to Whitney becoming my wife 24 years ago.”
Coleman is a world-renowned painter, writer, collector, and performer who has exhibited for four decades in major museums and galleries worldwide, including one-man exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, and the Barbican Centre in London, and galleries in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, and Miami. He’s currently represented by the Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York.
His beginnings were in underground comix and seminal performance work in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Coleman now focuses on his finely crafted paintings, meticulously executed with a single-hair brush. Each work requires years to produce.
A dedicated supporter of Coney Island USA (CIUSA), Joe has curated shows and lectured on various topics at the non-profit arts organization that produces the parade.
A major new monograph of Coleman’s painting, A Doorway to Joe, will be released by Fantagraphics Books on May 7.
Whitney Ward has been a Mermaid Parade star for three decades. Each year, her elaborate, inventive, sometimes terrifying costumes elicit fear and delight in the crowd. Since her first appearance, she has become an icon of the parade. Her unique, over-the-top visions represent the darker, more ominous sea dwellers. An award winning sea creature, Whitney raised the bar for creativity in one of the world’s best-known and most influential art parades.
“The sea is a powerful and sometimes terrifying place that deserves our respect. I love a beautiful mermaid as much as the next person, but I’ve always been attracted to the darker side. It’s fun to see the crowd's reactions, especially the kids. I hope it inspires their creativity. There’s a place for all of us in this parade. It’s truly my high holy day! The morning after each parade, I start planning next year’s costume. To say it is an honor to be chosen to be Queen is a profound understatement!"
“This is a dream come true,” Coney Island USA’s Artistic Director Adam Rinn emphatically states. “I’ve been a fan of Joe’s work since I saw an article about him in a horror magazine 35 years ago. Over the years, I got to know Joe and Whitney from hanging out in the judges’ reviewing stands at the parade and because they’re frequent guests at our fundraising events. They’re the perfect King and Queen. They fully embrace all that Coney Island USA has to offer. Art, performance, and history. Plus they’re two of the nicest, talented, and most down-to-earth people I’ve ever met.”
According to tradition, King Neptune and Queen Mermaid will be wheeled through the parade in an antique wicker Boardwalk Rolling Chair that dates back to 1923.
Immediately after the parade, at approximately 4 p.m., Mr. Rinn will lead the Queen and King procession to the beach at 19th Street and the Boardwalk, for the official Beach Ceremony and opening the ocean for the summer swimming season.
Parade Registration and information:
https://www.coneyisland.com/mermaidparade
Be a judge, starting at the “Mermaid Parade Judge” level, and enjoy drinks, snacks, an unobstructed view of their majesties, and perhaps best of all, bribes!
https://www.coneyisland.com/memberships
ABOUT THE PARADE:
The Mermaid Parade was founded in 1983 by Coney Island USA, the not-for-profit arts organization that also produces the Coney Island Circus Sideshow and houses The Coney Island Museum. The Mermaid Parade pays homage to Coney Island's forgotten Mardi Gras, which lasted from 1903 to 1954, also drawing from a host of other sources resulting in a wonderful, wacky, unique-to-Coney-Island event.
The parade was founded to achieve three goals: bring mythology to life for locals who live on streets named Mermaid and Neptune; create self-esteem in an often disregarded district; and allow artistic New Yorkers public self-expression. Previous King Neptunes and Queen Mermaids have included Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Queen Latifah, Moby, Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman, Annabella Sciorra, Judah Friedlander, Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, David Johansen, Karen Duffy, Carole Radziwill, Harvey and Daphne Keitel.