Joseph Montague was born in Montreal in 1955 and began his artistic career in his teens, firing ceramics in his backyard kiln in Kitsilano. He studied at Emily Carr College of Art and on scholarship at the Pratt Graphics Center in New York. He usually works in ceramic sculpture and printmaking, and his work has been exhibited and collected internationally. In 1981 he was guest artist at the Fourth Culturel Moussem in Morocco; several years later he began working at Studio Camnitzer in Italy, where he returned for seven summers. In NY in the 1980s and early 90s he was a preparator's assistant at the Guggenheim Museum and became head of the etching department at Watanabe Studios, NY. He is a member of the Malaspina Printmakers Society in Vancouver.