Joanna Braithwaite graduated from Ilam School of Fine Arts at Canterbury University in 1985. She has lived and worked in Sydney since 1999, and has held many solo exhibitions in New Zealand and Australia.
Joanna has been a finalist in the Archibald and Sulman Art Awards in Australia and was runner-up in the Portia Geach Art Award in 2006. Her work will be included in After Hours, Eight Contemporary New Zealand Painters, curated by Gregory O'Brien at City Gallery Wellington.
In 2005 the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, exhibited a survey show of her work entitled Wonderland.