Tam Joseph

Art critic Eddie Chambers referred to Tam Joseph, an English painter of Dominican descent, as a very gifted and multifaceted artist. Joseph, who was born in the Dominican Commonwealth, moved to London when he was eight years old and set up home there. He began attending the Central School of Art and Design in 1967 before graduating with a Bachelor's degree from the University of London's Slade School of Art. Tam Joseph spent the 1970s traveling and living in the Far East before enrolling in the London College of Printing and earning a Dip AD in Typographic Design.

Tam Joseph has made a significant contribution with a number of iconic paintings in which he serves as the focal point of sociopolitical criticism. Tam Joseph frequently produces works that surprise the viewer while also delighting them because they are shocking. The works like Spirit of the Carnival and UK School Report, in which Joseph was adored and revered by everybody, are typical in this regard. The 1983 painting Spirit of the Carnival, which is associated with the Notting Hill Carnival, is one of Joseph's most well-known pieces. Time Out called it "an astounding vision of a carnival masquerade." The UK School Report is a 1983 piece that is noteworthy for tracing a young black man's passage through the British educational system.