About the artist

Domingo Zapata is a Spanish-American artist born in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Zapata has maintained studios New York City, Los Angeles, Palma, and Southern France. He travels continually, looking for new inspiration and studios to bring life to his creations. He paints in both oil and acrylic, often incorporating mixed-media, collage, and graffiti.

For over 25 years, Zapata has built a body of work, which varies significantly in motif, though consistently explores themes of sexuality, opulence, and vitality in his signature style. In this distinctive hand, Zapata layers fantasy and reality, luring the viewer into his potent, cosmically beautiful world. Known for his signature Polo series, which first gained him critical acclaim, more recent work includes collections of Zapata Rhinos, Hollywood icons, and images inspired by his native Spanish culture. He often draws on his experiences as a songwriter (Zapata co-wrote lyrics for Michael Jackson and Jon Secada), and exposes his deeply poetic imagination by incorporating text and visual cues into many of his works. In this way, his images coax the viewer into his realm where fact and fiction persist simultaneously, fortifying each other’s beauty, depth, and meaning.

In the summer of 2019, Zapata painted the largest vinyl mural in the history of New York City for the facade of One Times Square. Additional public commissions include murals for the recently restored Colosseum in Rome as well as the lobby of the landmark Plaza Hotel in New York.

Zapata has exhibited at galleries, museums and fairs throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. His work has been acquired by some of the world’s most prominent collectors including George Soros, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Goldman Sachs.