Joseph Taly was born 30 December 1960 in Vynohradiv, Ukraine. His parents had immigrated there from Hungary during World War Two. Son of an Hungarian carpenter, Taly has been painting since his childhood in the Zaporozh Region of Ukraine near the border to Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. After secondary school, the artist served in the Soviet army from 1979-1981 stationed in Russia where he developed a love for mosaics. In 1981 he entered the Uzhhorod School of Applied Arts. During his studies he began painting murals on the walls of the Uzhhorod Hospital -- his first commissions.
Shortly after completing his studies in the Ukraine, then a republic of the Soviet Union, Taly moved to St.Petersburg, Russia and attended the class of Professor Milnikov at the Repin Academy of Arts. He took part in exhibitions throughout his four years at the Academy under both Milnikov and the equally-famed Professor Neprintsev. Taly then worked out of his home-studio in St.Petersburg, taking time every year to catch the various light and colours in the Carpathian Mountains, Black Sea, as well as the Baltic region. Taly is extremely busy exhibiting outside Russia in such diverse places as Seville, Spain; Helsinki, Finland; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Moscow, Russia, as well as Germany, France, Italy, Monaco, Estonia, Lithuania and Ukraine. He currently lives near Uzhhorod, Ukraine.