In Joseph Tan's ground-breaking landscape works, he made studies and experiments in "building up the surface and looking at the effects and stopping it from being porous and to effect a luminous quality." In an interview with art-writer Ooi Kok Chuen in the New Straits Times in 1991, he opined: "I like the interaction of colours and surface, of the form melting into the void, at times becoming the void... My Dungun office faced the South China Sea. Day in and day out, I saw the sky and the horizon, the changing light, especially during the monsoon time, the sea, the sand and the wide expanse of space." Filled with movement and rich detail, Joseph Tan used rice paper and mixed media to delineate the multi-faceted surface of the natural landscape. Joseph Tan excelled in multiple roles in art besides being an artist. He was acting director of the National Art Gallery (Oct 1974 to May 1976) and a member of its board trustee for five terms; general manager of the Hong Leong's Nanyang Gallery of Art (1992-1995); Director of Studies in Land and General Company (1996-1998), which included a 1996 AusAsia conservation programme; senior lecturer / coordinator of the Mara Institute of Technology for 25 years, from 1969 to 1992, and was also Head of Foundation Studies. After his Fine Art diploma at the New South Wales National School (1963-1966), he was awarded a Fulbright Hayes scholarship for a BFA at the Art Institute of Chicago (1969-1972) including a stint as a graduate assistant. When in New South Wales, he also taught for a year at the Granville Boy High School (1967). His major national exhibitions include the 1988 Pasadena show, Sydney Biennale (1974), Malaysian Art Since Independence (1977), 4th Indian Triennial (1978), Malaysian Art (Commonwealth Institute, 1978), 1st Contemporary Asian Art Show (Fukuoka Art Museum, 1980), Baghdad International Art Festival (1988), Malaysian Art in Germany (1991), and Rupa Malaysia (London, 1998).