osé de Moura Alcântara came from a numerous family, eleven brothers, all natural from Careiro city, Amazon. Son of João Marinho de Alcântara and Judith de Moura Alcântara, he was born in November 20th 1946, he is known today as José Alcântara, monumentalist artist, telluric, passional in relation the things of his region and with his undeniable ecological vocation which so well expressed in his work.

Alcântara began his artist career by painting oars, carving doors and panels in Cambixe city, where he lived with his parents. Around 6 and 10 years old he learned how to make wood canoes by using many of them to cross the little rivers of the region. He reminds with careless of his grandfather that all the weekends gave him a drawing notebook and a color pencils box, enough material to exercise the one that will be his profession.

There were many and different the ways where José Alcântara passed until arrived at his actually profession of wood sculptor. He began in his land by taking out milk, after he was bus driver, bus taxi, panels commercial houses painter, painter of "amazonian scenarios" for bars, restaurants and hotels. After, he went to a furniture garage, by working as a lacquer, and after, finally as carver of wood like Cedro.

In his little joinery in Manaus he found his way. First he learned how to build closets and after how to built bureaus. One day, after finishing one closet he missed something. He thought that he could add a detail, a wood strip with some carved leaves, by remembering the art learned with his canoes in his childhood. The success was immediate. Everybody wanted carved furniture.

Among big molds and gouves he got the way and again, the chance drew the artist way definitely. Seeing a swan china of his mother he resolved to copy it in the wood. Keeping the size and recreating the details without forget the paint dowry that he got by painting cars, he concluded his first animal which he doesn't sell nor gives and he saves it until today in his mother's house as a kind of amulet.

By studying the anatomy of hundreds of cats, their movements and by beholding the ounces "without come closer ", Alcântara began to sculpt his trade mark. Always with raw wood, without any joint, he began to give life to the first amazonian felines and, after, the fish, agoutis, tapirs, snakes, alligators, toucans, macaws, with infinity of proposes of sizes, movements and situations. For the "moustache" of the animals, he uses the cats' moustache that the boys of Manaus bring to him. The bright of the eyes, that seems glass is another secret of his techniques. He uses a mix of resins and glues to take the result. And what is seeing is impressionant.