Antonio Jose Prates was born in Vale de Açor, Ponte de Sor. He is a renowned Portuguese gallerist, entrepreneur, and writer, having founded the Galeria de São Bento, the Centro Português de Serigrafia, the Galeria António Prates, and the Fundação António Prates. In 1984, he started his career as a gallerist with the opening of Galeria de São Bento, a space for artists and intellectuals of the time to gather. This project was conceived with the participation of artists such as Luís Machado, Artur Bual, Lima de Freitas, Martins Correia, Eduardo Alarcão, Luís Dourdil, and António Palolo. In 1985, he contacted the painter Manuel Cargaleiro, inviting him to create a serigraphy, and founded the Centro Português de Serigrafia with the goal of forming an art club. He invited João Prates to lead the center. Later on, he established the gallery bearing his name: Galeria António Prates. This gallery aimed to establish connections with internationally renowned artists. It hosted exhibitions of great names in international art, such as Antonio Segui, Bernard Rancillac, Erró, Jacques Monory, Peter Klasen, and Vladimir Velickovic from the Narrative Figuration movement, as well as artists from the New Realism movement like Arman and Yves Klein. It also featured other artist groups, including the Spanish group El Paso, with artists such as Antonio Suárez, Luis Feito, Manuel Viola, Rafael Canogar, and Antonio Saura, as well as other Spaniards like Alberto Reguera, Andrés Alcántara, Esther Pizarro, Hilario Bravo, and José Manuel Ciria. The gallery became a pioneer, hosting some of the first exhibitions in the world of Robotic Art in 2004 and Bioart in 2005, featuring artists like Leonel Moura, Miguel Chevalier, Harold Cohen, Ken Rinaldo, Christa Sommerer, and Laurent Mignonneau. António Prates also organized the first Street Art exhibition in Portugal, with direct involvement from the artists, called "Beyond Walls" (2012). Participating artists included Costah, Dalaiama, EL ST, Pantónio, ± maismenos ±