WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.- There’s a monkey on the island; impeccably dressed, martini-adjacent, and deeply Palm Beach. Monkeying Around Palm Beach is the latest portrait series by Palm Beach resident artist Serge Strosberg , reimagining Johnnie Brown, architect Addison Mizner’s famously pet monkey (and near-mythical island character), as a modern avatar of Palm Beach life.

Johnnie, whose gravestone still sits quietly in the courtyard of Pizza al Fresco just off Worth Avenue, was once a fixture of Mizner’s social world in the Roaring Twenties, attending parties, accompanying the architect around town, and even “running” for mayor. Strosberg first encountered Johnnie not in a museum, but during a walk on the island, when that headstone stopped him short and sparked a deeper exploration of Palm Beach mythology.

In Strosberg’s hands, Johnnie becomes a mirror for the island itself. Rendered in jewel like oil and egg tempera using mischtechnik, a 15th-century Flemish indirect painting method that combines egg tempera and oil-based glazes, the monkey appears lounging poolside at The Breakers, pacing yacht decks, courtside in pastel blazers, and holding court at Swifty’s dressed in reimagined Lilly Pulitzer prints and Maus & Hoffman stripes. The scenes feel instantly recognizable to anyone who lives on or loves the island: elegant, theatrical, and just a little self-aware.



The Human Monkey-Giclée. Photo: Serge Strosberg

While the series is playful on the surface, it also offers a gentle commentary on Palm Beach’s rituals; fashion as social language, leisure as performance, and the curated ease that defines life on the island. Drawing inspiration from Slim Aarons photography, vintage Palm Beach party lore, and his own daily observations, Strosberg uses Johnnie as both insider and observer, always dressed to belong, always in on the joke.

Belgian-born and trained at Paris’s Académie Julian, Strosberg has lived and worked in Palm Beach for years. His broader Reimagining Palm Beach series has transformed historic black-and-white images of Flagler, Mizner, and Marjorie Merriweather Post into saturated, contemporary portraits, offering a bridge between the island’s past and present. Monkeying Around Palm Beach is its most intimate and most Palm Beach chapter yet.



The Weekend Getaway. Photo: Serge Strosberg

The series currently includes eighteen original works and plans for a 3D sculpture and limited-edition prints. While collectors from the Hamptons to Miami have taken notice, the heart of the project remains local, inspired by island walks, Worth Avenue landmarks, and Palm Beach’s unmistakable rhythm.

The majority of the paintings are currently on view at Surovek Gallery in Palm Beach, while others have sold to private collectors for as much as $17,500.