Painter and designer, born in Lisbon, Portugal. He studied at Chelsea School of Art, graduating in 1981. He exhibited in group shows, including Francis Graham-Dixon Gallery, and abroad in Portugal, Spain and Japan. In 1990 held a major solo show at Centre de Arte Moderna, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon. Penalva was for a time a dancer with Pina Bausch Dance Theatre and worked as a set designer. Dance and the theatre continued to attract him as an artist, each picture being a bravura performance of dots, stripes and other devices. Lived in London.