Johanna Melvin was born in Limehouse, east London and has her studio in Walthamstow where she lives with her musician husband, Rod. Having initially worked for many years as a painter/illustrator, Jo studied painting and printmaking at Sir John Cass Faculty of Fine Art where she gained a BA Hons (Fine Art) and was short-listed for the Royal College of Art post-graduate programme in 1998.
After graduating from her BA Jo continued making work at Wildman Corner studios, the studios set up by Tim Mara, Head of Printmaking at The Royal College of Art. Jo also held the post of Editions Manager from 2006 - 15 at the Whitechapel Gallery, working with leading contemporary artists, printmakers and curators to develop a programme of limited edition prints as fund-raisers for the Gallery. During this time her work was exhibited five times at The Royal Academy of Art; Flowers Gallery and The Contemporary Art Society among others.
On becoming a freelance editions consultant in 2015, Jo was also able to dedicate more time to her studio practice and participated in the Turps Banana Painting Correspondence Course 2016-17. Turps Banana is an alternative art school dedicated to painting that was set up by Marcus Harvey and Peter Ashton Jones in 2012. Jo's post-graduate studies continued with Painting:The Bigger Picture, a year long course run by Bob and Roberta Smith RA, OBE at the Essential School of Painting in Bethnal Green, London, becoming part-time co-tutor on this course during 2017-18.
Her work is held in several private and public collections, including the Whitechapel Gallery Archives and The Groucho Club Collection.