Domingo Zapata is a Spanish-American artist born in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Currently, Zapata maintains studios in his Gramercy Park townhouse in New York City, the Design District in Miami, and Hollywood. In these private ateliers he produces Neo-Expressionist paintings as well as sculpture. He paints in both oil and acrylic, often incorporating mixed-media, collage and graffiti.
For over 20 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 focuses on themes including his native Spanish culture, American Pop icons, and the state of the contemporary practice. 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.
During New York Fashion Week sept 2017 Domingo Zapata joined together with friends, art enthusiasts, and some of his top collectors to celebrate the launch of his debut novel, The Beautiful Dream of Life, at the Chefs Club Counter in Lower Manhattan.
Guests enjoyed wine, cocktails, and even Domingo’s personal Paella recipe! The night was full of music, ample photo-ops, and the signing of many books for Domingo’s close friends and fans. The Beautiful Dream of Life is an evocative, immersive, and at times satirical portrait of a renowned contemporary artist who, while grappling with the intersection of his art, his life, and the world he lives in, begins to slip further and further into delusion.
With the satirical edge of Bret Easton Elli’s Glamorama and the diffuse beauty of Huber Selby Jr.’s classic Requiem for a Dream, The Beautiful Dream of Life is at once an ethereal, captivating, and wildly compelling story of hard-edged desire and carnal creativity, from one of the most successful painters of our time.