Home town: Timoenai, Manus
Joe had been creating since he was a small boy but it was at High School that he really connected and committed to art.
This ability earned him a scholarship enabling him to come to Port Moresby to study at the Creative Art School, where he graduated in 1975. When it became the National Art School Joe joined the team to teach.
His first international travel through his artwork was 1974 when he was invited to attend World Craft Conference in Toronto, Canada. This was the first of many overseas experiences, including a one month visit to Germany in 1979 for ‘Tingting Bilong Mi’, as part of a group exhibition of PNG art in Stuttgart.
His work has been exhibited in Australia, New Zealand, USA, India, Thailand, Germany and the UK whilst his most recent show was Copenhagen in Denmark as the highlight of his three month residency.
Joe is known for painting the traditional stories of his land and people, bringing magical detail into his work although more recently the environment, in particular climate change, has become a key theme. Although he does work in acrylic and has mastered some huge works, it is the magical quality of watercolour on paper that has garnered him is International reputation. His exhibition with Art Stret Gallery this year has been highly successful with several works being dispatched abroad.