Michael Torquato deNicola (b. 1967, Pasadena, CA) | Painter, Designer, and Filmmaker
Michael Torquato deNicola — known as Torquato — is a painter, designer, and filmmaker whose visual work has run in parallel with a career as a professional surfer. He began surfing at twelve, made the US National Team by nineteen, and turned pro after finishing college, becoming one of the first college-educated surfers on the international circuit. The painting practice grew from the same source. DeNicola works in a fluid, gestural mark-making he has called modern primitivism, across canvas, paper, metal panel, and — in one ongoing series — the surfboards he rides. FATHOM publishes signed limited edition prints from five of his bodies of work: Love More, Reef Paintings, Sun Spots, The Hope Series, and Torquato Surf Boards.
Professional Experience
DeNicola’s earliest paid art came through the surf industry. Beginning in 1989, he produced design collaborations with Quiksilver, O’Neill, Hot Tuna, and BC Surfboards. His first major break into fine art came in the late 1990s, when he won a juried award at the Surf City USA Art Festival; gallery representation and private collectors followed in the US, Europe, and Japan.
In the early 2000s deNicola moved into film and television. He developed the Red Bull 5X surfing game and TV series, which ran on FOX, NBC, and Fuel TV from 2000 to 2006; the Torquato character and the tagline Yes You Can originated in that project. He went on to produce and art-direct the award-winning surfing documentary The Westsiders, and served as a producer on the 2017 feature film Chapter & Verse.
Exhibitions
DeNicola’s work has been shown in galleries and museums across the United States, Japan, and Europe — including the Amstel Gallery (Amsterdam), Chase Edwards Gallery (the Hamptons), Art Project Paia (Maui), the Misfit Gallery (La Jolla), and the Laguna Gallery of Contemporary Art. Museum presentations include the Architecture and Design Museum, the Surfing Heritage Museum, and a solo exhibition of his Reef Paintings at the Neutra Museum.
Publications
His artwork has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Maxim, Surfer, Surf Europe, Waves, and Blue (Japan), among other international titles. In 2021 he published A Book of Hope, drawn from his Hope Series of mixed media works on paper made during the first COVID lockdown.
DeNicola lives and works in Los Angeles.
Michael Torquato deNicola Artist Hub Page
Torquato Art Collections at FATHOM: Love More | Reef Paintings | Sun Spots | The Hope Series | Torquato Surf Boards