Born in Porto in 1940. Graduated in Painting from ESBAP, he received scholarships from FCG and Legado Ventura Terra. From 1968 to 1970 he was professor and director of the Academy of Fine Arts of Funchal and from 1971 he started teaching at ESBAL. 

He developed his career as a painter alongside that of a teacher, showing his work in more than 20 individual and 60 collective exhibitions and seeing his work recognized with several national awards, including the National Painting Championship, in 1969.

Go there; of painting, he created ballet scenes. He was awarded the Master Joaquim Lopes Prize, the Silver Medal at the IV Art Exhibition in Rome, the National Painting Prize (1969) and the III Almada Negreiros Prize, awarded by the Ministries. ;river of Culture. He has exhibited individually since 1961 in mostly national galleries and museums and has also participated in several group shows. As a scholarship holder from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, he had the opportunity, from 1976, to travel to Paris where he comes into contact with the avant-garde of European painting and where he awakens to the potential of art as a builder of individuals and communities. He was made a Full Member Honoris Causa of the European Academy of Fine Arts.  

He was awarded the “Prime;Mestre Joaquim Lopes” Prize in 1958; 1965: Silver Medal “IV Mostra D’Arte” – Pomegranate; 1969: National Painting Prize; 1985: ″ Tribute from Portuguese artists to Almada Negreiros” SEC – Lisbon.

He created several engraving and screen printing editions, of which the following stand out: Engraving: Atelier de António Winter, Lisbon; Atelier Jorge Bastos, Lisbon; Portuguese Screen Printing Centre, Lisbon; Cooperativa Árvore, Porto; Art and Nature, Madrid.

In a text written by himself, Justino Alves described painting as: the “space suited to life’ sensitivity that has always accompanied me, and the means par excellence that would make it possible to create an author's work”.

He passed away on August 18, 2015.