Joseph (Joe) Quilter is a Sydney-based street, graffiti and fine artist who has been a prominent participant in the scene for 25 years. His style consists of graffiti, calligraphy, stylised realism and abstract imagery. He has painted murals all over the globe.

He was first inspired by the graffiti he saw as a young boy in New York in the 80’s. When he moved to New Zealand and eventually Australia, his early exposure to the world of street art grew into an obsession, then a career, and a PhD (in progress).

Joe has been inspired by the work of other great Australian street artists such as SNARL, OKAE and CAIB. Jo says SNARLS’s work reflects a mastery of 3d and 2d forms, character art and detailed backgrounds. CAIB combines abstraction and calligraphic forms. He considers himself lucky to have worked and collaborated with SNARL, ZEN, OKAE and many others. Other influences on Joe’s graffiti include CHILD, INSA, COPE2 and some work by classical and contemporary artists such as Tom Roberts, Joseph William Mallord Turner, Jackson Pollock, Goya and Francis Bacon.

In 2020 he created a large body of work to tie into his Masters of Research at Macquarie University in the Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies Department. They are political messages which reflect the nature and quality of graffiti writing, and the dialectical politics of conscience inherent in the subculture. They are intended to represent authentic graffiti writing by bridging the gap between the illegality of the subculture and the loss of substance when graffiti is appropriated by professional uses of the aesthetic. These pieces he hopes show graffiti writing for what it is: an appreciation of letter forms, and a politically powerful form of visual and cultural communication capable of traversing the subcultural and fine art worlds. All pieces were made for his research project, most were exhibited using campus gallery space. The mural can be viewed in person behind the Macquarie Theater in the quad.

He is one of Australia’s most sought-after wall and mural painters. He has worked on large and small murals for government departments, schools, developers, small and medium business owners, corporate organisations and home owners. His mural style combines graffiti and street art with abstract art and stylized realism.

Joe was recently commissioned by the developer Lendlease, along with SNARL, to paint an iconic mural across three large silo tanks on the Hume Highway near Wilton. The murals are a tribute to Wollondilly Shire, produced after community consultation, and feature a dairy farmer, the Dharawal totem lyre bird, and a wedge-tailed eagle. The final product is now an asset that the entire community can be proud of. Images of the mural are immediately below.

Jeo Quilter can be hired to design and run graffiti and spray painting workshops in Sydney. Joe is experienced at working with children and young people, community groups and people from vulnerable communities.