Macaparana was born José de Souza Oliveira Filho in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco in 1952. He devoted himself to drawing from an early age: a long convalescence allowed him to discover art with the only help of a piece of paper and a bunch of colour pencils. This initial austerity, associated to his passion for music and crafts, defined his style. His early production was figurative, but when he moved to Sao Paulo he came into contact with the artists of the Neo-Concrete movement. In that city he experienced a sort of second birth, and he acquired a new name. In 1979, Pietro Maria Bardi–founder and director of the Sao Paulo Museum of Art (MASP)–and artist Antonio Maluf, began to call him by the name of his hometown: Macaparana.Since that time, he has participatd in dozens of exhibitions, art fairs and biennials. He was invited to participate in the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1991. He has shown several times at ARCO, Madrid. Among his latest exhibitions, special mention may be made of his participation in Art Basel (represented by Denise René Gallery) and his two 2010 solo shows, at Jorge Mara-La Ruche Gallery (Buenos Aires) and Dan Gallery (Sao Paulo), respectively.