Serge Strosberg's The Palm Beach Influencer at Surovek Gallery

Serge Strosberg was born in Belgium in 1966, studied art in Paris, moved to New York and now lives and works in Palm Beach Island. He has embraced the Palm Beach culture and community and the community has embraced him.

 

A visit to a local museum inspired Strosberg to create a series of works about the founders of the community. “I was walking in Palm Beach, and COVID hit, and the whole town came to a standstill,” he said in an interview with Boca Magazine. “I decided to go to the Flagler Museum, because I like history. And I’m looking at all these photographs of Flagler … and I thought it would be interesting to reimagine them in a more compelling way. I’m trying to be a bridge between the past and the present, maybe even the future.”

 

 

Strosberg used many of the old photographs of Palm Beach founders and painted portraits of them, imaging how they would appear in the 21st century. His works have been exhibited at major venues in Palm Beach.

 

 

One of the finest portraits in the collection is of Addison Mizner (1872-1933), the architect whose work impacted the design of homes, gardens and public spaces in Palm Beach. Mizner was often seen with a parrot on one shoulder and his pet spide monkey, Johnnie Brown, on the other.

 

Strosberg, whose commissioned portraits are in public and private collections around the world, has continued to paint portraits of Johnnie Brown enjoying the Palm Beach life style.

 

The most recent portrait of Johnnie Brown, The Palm Beach Influencer, is not just a reflection of Palm Beach, but of the world we live in.

 

Johnnie Brown died in 1927 and was buried on Via Mizner, along Worth Avenue. The gravesite remains there to this day.

 

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 Please contact us if you would like more information about the works of Serge Strosberg, available at Surovek Gallery.

 

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References:

Florida Weekly. He Came. He Saw. He Reimagined. January 12, 2023.

Joe Capozzi. Henry Flagler, Palm Beach Gilded Age get colorful makeover in Lake Worth Beach exhibit. The Palm Beach Post. January 30, 2023.

John Thomason. Take 5 With Serge Strosberg. Boca Magazine. May 21, 2025.

Seebohm, Caroline. Boca Rococo. How Addison Mizner Invented Florida's Gold Coast. Clarkson Potter. 2001. ISBN 978-0609605158.

Molly McGown. Johnnie Brown's Grave. Atlas Obscura. February 15, 2019.

September 5, 2025