Michael Torquato de Nicola is a world-traveling and award-winning surfer, artist, and filmmaker. Born and raised in Southern California, he is a lifelong surfer with much of his inspiration coming from the ocean and his experiences in locations such as Indonesia, Iceland, Samoa, Peru, and the Galapagos Islands.

Mike has always designed the work on his surfboards, but it was only when he started traveling and competing internationally that his work developed into the style it is today.

Some of his favorite ventures have come from working with Marie Claire, The Olson Company, and creating and producing Red Bull’s ‘5X’ series, seen on FOX, NBC, and Fuel TV, which features a new format of competitive surfing. Mike produced and art-directed the award-winning documentary ‘The Westsiders’ and produced the feature film ‘Chapter and Verse,’ released in 2017.

Mike’s visual works have appeared in galleries, art fairs, film festivals, and TV screens around the world over the past 25 years, as was the subject of ‘A L.A. Surf Story’ presented at Civic Center Studios in Downtown Los Angeles.

In 2020, Mike created ‘A Book of HOPE,’ which is based on a repetition of 21-day meditations during the pandemic. Most recently, his artwork has been exhibited at the Tracy Park Gallery in Malibu and the Swing Street Gallery on Gallery Row in Downtown L.A.

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