Serge Strosberg

After relocating to New York from his native Belgium, Serge Strosberg became engrossed in the social activities and personalities of downtown Manhattan, drawing on them for inspiration in his paintings. Following in the tradition of figurative painters such as Lucian Freud and Elizabeth Peyton, Strosberg’s expressionist portraits forgo photorealism and elicit an emotional aura. Strosberg is particularly attracted to the fashion community, as demonstrated in “The Agalmatophilia Series” (2012–13). He painted models who straddle a visual line between animate beings and inert mannequins, giving life to the normally expressionless wearers of fashion.