Yakob Morley

Yakob Morley is a self-taught artist from Melbourne, Australia, who paints on wood, canvas, and assemblages. After more than twenty years as a tattoo artist, he turned his focus to painting, carrying with him an appreciation for line, symbolism, and storytelling.

His work draws on folk art, craft, photography, and tattoo culture, exploring themes of honesty and immediacy. He is particularly drawn to the raw, intuitive qualities often found in outsider art. Oil and acrylic are his mainstays, though he has a particular love of painting on wood panels, where texture and mark-making become central to the piece.

Yakob has followed an independent path, creating and showing work on his own terms. His philosophy is simple: stay prolific, keep experimenting, and always return to the studio. For him, the process of making is just as important as the finished work.