Julio daCunha was born in Bogota, Colombia and following studies in Colombia and Mexico City, attended the University of Florida and graduated with a bachelors degree in architecture in 1952. He arrived in Delaware in 1956 to teach at the University of Delaware following the completion of his master of fine arts degree at Cranbrook Academy of Art. DaCunha served as department chair from 1966 to 1969 and taught until his retirement in 1994.
The artist exhibited throughout the northeast and in his native Colombia under the surnames Acuna, Acuña, Acunha, and Da Cunha. Solo exhibitions of daCunha's work have been held at Hardcastle's and the Fifth Street Gallery in Wilmington, Delaware; at Zegri Gallery and Pleiades Gallery in New York; and at the Delaware Art Museum and the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts. The artist placed himself within the Spanish tradition and cites the influences of Arshile Gorky, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Roberto Matta, and Francisco de Goya.
