Joe LaMattina was born in 1953. He received his BA in Art Education and MA in Visual Arts/Printmaking from William Paterson University. From 1975 – 1982 he showed his prints at the Printmaking Council of NJ. In 1981, he was invited to a four-person printmaking exhibition at the Newark Museum.
From 1975 – 2011, LaMattina was an art educator with the Hackensack Public School System and also taught at the P.I. Art Center in New Jersey. He switched from teaching elementary school children to high school students in 1997. He started exhibiting his own work again in 2008. “Loving my job as teacher and mentor, I spent those years and most of my energy inspiring adults and young artists ages five to sixty-five. It was an amazing and rewarding experience. Since retirement, I’ve focused on integrating my studio time, gallery shows, and private teaching,” said LaMattina.
LaMattina has donated work generously to many worthy causes. He donated “Alphabet Series A #20” to the Alzheimer’s Association of Georgia, in September 2016. Another is the donations of “X Marks the Spot”, to Farm to Tray, a Sustainable Food Event benefiting Holy Apostles Food Kitchen, NYC, May 2019. A third was to “Winter Solstice”, benefitting the family of a fallen Rockland County, NY Police Officer in May 2019.
