BIOGRAPHY

Joe Hodway (b. 1974) is an award winning London based artist who was born in Dubai to a British mercenary and a refugee of Iraqi origin. He has lived in the Middle-East, Europe, and South-East Asia where he absorbed many of the stylistic and spiritual elements seen in his work. He has a BA in Fine Art Sculpture from The University of Wales Institute in Cardiff, and was expelled from an MA at Goldsmiths for a series of works that “crossed the line”. In 2025 he was awarded an MA in Painting by the Royal College of Art in London.

STATEMENT

I am interested in the transience of form and identity, and their transformation through the interplay of time, energy, matter, information and location. My work addresses how these constantly changing factors disrupt the perception of boundaries to expose the shared narratives that unite us with each other and our environments. I position my work as contemporary parallels to 17th Century Dutch Vanitas and memento mori still life paintings, which have been informed by the subsequent revelations of cosmological science. 

My work is visually informed by international shipping traffic that passes my studio on the bank of the River Thames in London. Surfaces emblazoned with insignia and serial numbers reveal not only current identities and affiliations, but rich visual histories of migration and experience, recorded through weathering, scratches, graffiti and rebranding. I view these industrial skins as analogous to how personal narratives evolve and are encoded in the scars, wrinkles and memories of the flesh.

Some of my work contains concealed phosphorescent images referencing idealized historical art or human interactions. Visible only in complete darkness, these images allude to the transmission and adaptation of conceptual and biological information over time, and the limitations of our senses to apprehend it.

Sustainability is fundamental to my practice. The majority of my current work has a net-negative carbon emissions footprint, achieved through use of salvaged post-consumer paints (carbon neutral) and virgin materials that sequester carbon dioxide. The recycling of materials is conceptually significant, echoing the eternal recycling of matter and energy into new configurations in cosmological systems.

By championing sustainable methodologies I endeavor to provide emulatable models for responsible art production, while promoting tolerance and understanding through recognition of our common origins and shared trajectories. 10% of all my sales proceeds are donated to environmental charities.

EDUCATION

• Royal College of Art, London: MA Painting
• Goldsmiths, University of London: Post Graduate Certificate in Artist Teachers and Contemporary Practices (retrospectively awarded)
• University of Greenwich, London: Post Graduate Certificate in Secondary Education – Art and Design
• University of Wales Institute, Cardiff: BA (Hons) Fine Art Sculpture
• Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education (CGCHE): BTEC diploma in Art and Design

AWARDS

• 2024, RCA President and Vice Chancellor’s Award
• 2022, Winner – Best in Show – Erotic Art London

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2025

• The London Group Open, Copeland Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• Erotic Art London 2025, Copeland Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• MIX, AND Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• RCA 2025, Royal College of Art, London U.K. (group exhibition)
• Ripple, Bobcat Gallery, London UK. In collaboration with ArtCan. (group exhibition)
• The Woolwich Open 2025, TSS Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• For the *********** People, Hockney Gallery, RCA, London, U.K. (group exhibition)

2024

• Phing Ting, Ben Oakley Gallery, London, U.K. in association with St. Christopher’s Hospice. (group exhibition)
• Identity: Past, Present, Future, Espacio Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• The Woolwich Open 2024, TSS Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• Convergence, Espacio Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• Exploring Nature and the Manmade, Barbican Centre Library, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• Anything Goes, (March exhibition) The Capital Art Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!, The Bermondsey Gallery, London, U.K. In collaboration with the Ben Oakley Gallery. (group exhibition)
• WHATEVER (extended), Ben Oakley Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)

2023

• WHATEVER, Ben Oakley Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• Light in the darkness, Espacio Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• Erotic Art London, OXO Tower Wharf, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• Anything Goes, (July exhibition) The Capital Art Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• The Woolwich Open 2023, TSS Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• The Exquisite Exhibition, Espacio Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• Art & Music Show, Meter Squared (West Kensington), London U.K. (group exhibition)
• LGBT+LIFE, Brixton Tate Library, London U.K. (group exhibition)
• Fragile Earth, Two More Years, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• No fear in the new year, Espacio Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)

2022

• Anything Goes, (December exhibition) The Capital Art Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• Anything Goes,(November exhibition) The Capital Art Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• Art Maze, (October exhibition) OXO Tower Wharf, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• Leake Street Tunnel (Street art installation), London U.K. (group exhibition)
• Anything Goes, (July exhibition) The Capital Art Gallery, London, U.K. (group exhibition)
• Erotic Art London, OXO Tower Wharf, London, U.K. Winner: Best In Show award (group exhibition)
• Art Maze, (February exhibition) OXO Tower Wharf, London, U.K. (group exhibition)