Machado is a graduate in architecture and urban planning from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and holder of a doctorate in the visual arts from Goldsmiths College; the artist has been exhibiting since the 1970s, moving freely between drawing, objects, sculpture, video, photography, and installations. He has held solo exhibitions at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2005), and Barbican Centre, London (England, 2000), and featured in the 7th Mercosur Biennial in Porto Alegre (2009).