José Roosevelt was born in Rio de Janeiro. When he was only 15 years old he decided to take up painting, being fascinated by the surrealism of Dali🎨, and the then emerging fantasy art.
He taught himself primarily through visiting museums and art galleries and read extensively about the history of painting and its techniques. Initially he began by writing and illustrating graphic novels, but from about 1977 painting became Roosevelt's main focus.
His first solo exhibition was held in Brasília in 1979 in which he displayed thirty surrealist pictures🎨, mostly painted in acrylic on canvas.
In 1987 he had an exhibition at the Galerie Bleue in Switzerland and then travelled around Europe for a year visiting museums and art collections, going to Paris, Florence and Rome. Arising out of this, he moved to Switzerland in 1990, set up a studio and began creating his now well known oil paintings.







