Painter, draughtsman, and printmaker, Roberto Lúcio de Oliveira was born in João Pessoa, Brazil in 1941. He moved to Recife in 1964 and enrolled in the UFPE (Federal University of Pernambuco. He completed the Drawing Degree Course in 1968, the Painting Course in 1970, and the Graphic Arts Course in 1972. Prior to completing the courses, Lúcio was teaching drawing, painting and graphic arts at the UFPE.

Lúcio began exhibiting in 1965 and, in 1968, he was awarded the Drawing Acquisition Prize at the XXVII Annual Painting Salon of the Pernambuco State Museum. The following year he was awarded the 1^st Painting Prize at the XXVIII Annual Painting Salon.

In 1974, Lúcio began developing industrial design work and traveled to Europe and Scandinavia the following year for further study and research in that field. In the late 1970s, he was developing industrial designs for Cia. Agro Fabril Mercantil and Cia. Industrial Pernambucana.

Solo exhibitions of Roberto Lúcio’s work were held at various venues in Brazil in the years 1969, 1972, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1998, and 1999. Lúcio also had solo exhibitions mounted at Galeria Noé in Berlin, Germany in 1990; at Galerie Gebr. Lehmann in Dresden, Germany in 1992; and at the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois, USA in 1993. His work was included in numerous collective exhibitions throughout Brazil, as well as, in Berlin, Paris, Cardiff, Marseille, London, New York, and Miami.