SERGE STROSBERG (B. 1966, BELGIAN, LIVES IN NEW YORK CITY)

Working very much like a collage artist, using paper clips and cutouts, Strosberg attempts to decontextualize socioeconomic events that recently occured after the crash, painting absurd situations and some of the dark and well known facets of Manhattan as well as political turmoil outside of the USA.

Using portraiture in a satirical way, he brings expressionism and realism together in paintings that are very fresh and pop…

Serge Strosberg studied Graphic Design in Paris at Academie Julian and Morphology at Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts. In 2010, Strosberg was an artist in residence in China and received a grant from The Shanghai Himalayas Art Museum to paint a series of chinese countrymen to be exhibited near Shanghai. He was the recipient of the Jan Cockx Prize given by The Director of Mukha, The Museum of Contemporary Art of Antwerp (Belgium) and has exhibited with major realist painters such as Lucian Freud and Philip Pearlstein in group shows at The Felix Nussbaum Museum (Germany), The Musee de Pontoise and solo shows at The French Senate (France), The Jewish Museum of Belgium, The Joodse Historisch Museum (Amsterdam), The Ann Norton Museum, The Lighthouse Center for the Arts Museum in Southern Florida. His work is in 6 Museum collections and approximately 130 collections across the globe.

He has been commissioned more than 100 portraits.

CRITICS PICKS :

Lauren Kelly Goldstein :

Five stories above the streets of soho, this is Diane Arbus in reverse: instead of offering a glimpse into the world of the marginalized and scorned, most of Mr. Strosberg’s subjects are society’s most glorified.

They appear to inspire envy, but therein lies their freakishness. An extremely thin girl with the tell-tale bulging neck of an anorexic. A posh woman at the bar with a hint of pain in her eyes… infidelity and a failed marriage? A chic redhead completely cool but for her masochistic looking sidekick: is this her lover or an inner demon? It is these characters’ subtle pain and obscured freakishness that brings them into dimension.

Miamiartzine magazine (review of Art Wynwood):

Strosberg explained “(His) ‘Gold Series’ is an experimental body of work re-contextualizing key socio-political events that have been energizing the world, particularly since the Great Recession of 2008.” This series “deals with events that actually happened on the streets of New York, Los Angeles, etc…”

Guestofaguest NYC :

NYC Art Round Up 2013: Our 30 Favorite Shows Of the Year

Stephen Rosenberg (Rosenberg Fine Art) :

My preference has always been for artists who continually hone their talent and take risks, who do not become formulaic regardless of commercial success, and who, as Roberta Smith of The New York Times recently pined for, actually make things with their hands. Given his unique combination of talent, enthusiasm, sophistication, and fascination for his new surroundings, my suggestion is that we pay close attention to Serge Strosberg.