While Joseph Howard did not have a formal college art education, he was well educated in the arts. After high school, he did a four year apprenticeship at the Johnson Atelier in Mercerville, New Jersey.. He was also an assistant to the artists Dorothea Greenbaum of Princeton, New Jersey, Isaac Witkin of Pemberton, New Jersey, and Joel Shapiro of New York City. He has received grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts as well as the Herk Van Tongeren Memorial Sculpture Fund Award at the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture.

Howard began exhibiting his sculptures when he was in his twenties. His one person exhibitions include those held at the Mercer County Community College in West Windsor, New Jersey, the Extension Gallery in Mercerville, New Jersey and the Larsen-Dulman Gallery in New Hope, Pennsylvania. Sculpture Cross Sections: Productive Partners at Huderton Art Center, Clinton, New York, Landscapes at SLO Gallery Brewery Arts Complex, 4th Design East/West Exhibition and the Shikishi Exhibition at the Doizaki Gallery in the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Los Angeles, California, and Smithumenta at 261 Bond Street, Brooklyn, New York are among the many group exhibitions in which his work has been included. At present, he works on sculpture production for Julian Schnabel in New York.