A Costa Rican artist born in 1956, Mr Valerio’s beginning in art dates from his first school years, gaining the first award of his life in drawing a portrait of Mr. Jesús Jiménez  President of Costa Rica as he appeared in the beginning of the century.  He is the son of Mr. Oscar Valerio Rojas and Elena Trigueros Umaña, and grandson of the biologist, entomologist and naturalistic professor Manuel Valerio. 

He acknowledges the support of his parents, as well as the support of his wife Vera Virginia Arias Zúñiga as vital in his career, as he pursued his art; his artistic expression of what his grandfather had done in his scientific studies of living animals. 

Mr Valerio is a secondary graduate in Sciences and Letters and achieved additional Studies at the University of Costa Rica in drawing, painting, sculpture, xylography and engraving. 

In over forty years of expression, He has been acclaimed as one of the better hyper-realistic painters of Costa Rica and Latin America, exposing his work in noticeable cultural centers of the continent as well as extensively in private collections in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. 

Gerardo’s works form part of the Costa Rican government collections exhibited in the Presidential House, General Finance Office of the Republic, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Nature and Energy, Ministry of Justice and Grace, Refinery of Costa Rican Petroleum, General Attorney's Office of the Republic, National Bank of Costa Rica, and University for the Peace. The office of the secretary of Culture of Jalisco, organized exhibitions of his work in Mexico during the years 1996, 1997, 1998. 

After many years of being rewarded in multiple contests with landscapes while developing his own acclaimed style in advance of his later ecological theme, Gerardo entered the 80’s with naturalistic paintings, receiving continuing recognition in this genre. He is committed in continuing his 33 years of painting the world’s flora and fauna with concentration on endangered species as his artistic legacy in a commitment to ecologic preservation for coming generations.  As modern pioneer in the ecological movement in his country of Costa Rica, He has fought with his brushes and paintings on behalf of the environmental conservation. This art that is his career has been recognized and awarded not only by the consistent and generous patronage of the Costa Rican Museum of Art, but also by national and international foundations of wild life.