John Siune was born in 1965 in Kapank, a village in Papua New Guinea's Highlands. In 1982 he moved to Port Moresby where he trained as a picture framer. In this environment he developed the idea of art as an object with commercial value and was introduced to works by senior artist from his region, Mathias Kauage. Siune started painting in 1989 and his work was deeply influenced by Kauage and the artists working around him. Siune’s first painting of the Bougainville crisis in 1991 marked a significant turn in his art, which began to engage with contemporary and often controversial issues of PNG society. In recent years, John Siune's work has attracted critical acclaim and is represented in the collections of major art institutions such as the Centre Culturel Tjibaou (Noumea, New Caledonia) and the National Gallery of Australia.