Joanna Braithwaite was born at Halifax, England, in 1962 and moved to Aotearoa with her family in 1965. She studied at the University of Canterbury’s Ilam School of Fine Arts, graduating in 1985. She lived in Melbourne from 1993 to 1995, and has been based in Sydney since 1999. In 2005, she was the subject of a major survey exhibition, Wonderland, curated Justin Paton of Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Felicity Milburn of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. Works are held in collections around Aotearoa and Australia.
