Born on June 26, 1937, in Lisbon. He lived and worked in Évora, where he is located. Part of his work has been exhibited since 1985.

He held his first solo exhibition ("Plastic Trials") in 1951, at the age of 14, in Reguengos de Monsaraz, where he presented sculptures, paintings, watercolors and ceramics.

He made his debut in the arts in the studios of several masters and, after a brief stint at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts, he joined, on the recommendation of Paula Rego, the art studio. Slade School of Art, in London, where he graduated.

In the 1960s, Cutileiro returned to Portugal, subverting the canons of Estado Novo statuary, intervening in public space with urban art projects marked by experimentalism. Of particular note is the Monument to the 25th of April by him, installed in Parque Eduardo VII, in Lisbon, among many other works. Intimacy, eroticism and love are the main themes of his sculptural work, heavily influenced by marble, recognized in Portugal and abroad. D. Sebastião's sculpture, in Lagos, a work that challenged the Estado Novo in 1970, was his most controversial work.

In 1988, he held exhibitions in Almancil, Macau and Lisbon and, in the following year, he held new exhibitions in Almancil and the capital of Portugal. In 1990, he held an exhibition that presented itself as a retrospective of his art, in Lisbon, at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. 

He was awarded the Order of Sant'Iago da Espada, Officer Degree, in August 1983, and received the Doctorate Honoris Causa from the University of Évora and the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, the latter, granted in 2017.

João Cutileiro died, aged 83, on January 5, 2021, in Lisbon.