Joe Segal was born in New York in 1963. After growing up on Long Island he moved to St Augustine, Florida and attended Flagler College where he studied with sculptor Enzo Torcoletti. Segal graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in visual arts then returned to New York to study bronze casting at The Sculpture Center.

Segal is one of the most innovative sculptors working in Florida, creating compelling art that typically combil1es wood, manipulated and processed in some way, with steel or aluminum objects. He has been featured in public exhibitions at the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art ( solo show in 2005, featuring prints and sculpture ), The University of South Florida, The Cummer Museum of Jacksonville, The Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the gallery at Flagler College in St. Augustine. Public collections in which his sculpture can be found include the Bass Museum in Miami, the Lowe Museum in Coral Gables and the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art.

In 2000, Segal was a recipient of Fostering Vitality in the Arts grant frOm the Jacksonville Community Foundation. In 2001 he received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the State of Florida: both of these were related to his sculpture. In 2003 he was awarded another grant from the Jacksonville Community Foundation and in 2004, an Artistic Enhancement Grant from the State of Florida. These last two were in recognition of Segal's experimentation with printmaking.

"There are multiple and complex associations that occur with the use of wood in art, since that particular lends itself to burning, sanding, splitting, cutting and carving for a variety of surface effects.

The result here is a visually provocative experience that deftly and forcefully challenges the interaction between objects and the materials from which they are made."

Carol Damian
ART news, February 1997