Jérôme Lagarrigue (b. 1973, Paris) is a French-American painter celebrated for his compelling, layered portraits that probe the psychological depths of his subjects. The son of a French illustrator father and an American writer mother, he spent his youth in Paris and summers in New York, before relocating to the U.S. in 1992. He earned a BFA in illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1996 and soon began teaching drawing and painting at Parsons School of Design (1997–2005). Lagarrigue’s accolades include the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award and the Ezra Jack Keats Award in 2002, and a residency at the Villa Medici in Rome (2005–06), where he exhibited “Paesaggio del viso,” a powerful exploration of faces as landscapes. His career spans collaborations with Maya Angelou, commissions from the Metropolitan Opera (“Tosca” set, 2009–10) and George Lucas (Star Wars tribute, purchased by Lucas himself), and features in major public and private collections including the Brooklyn Museum and Studio Museum in Harlem. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, represented by Galerie Olivier Waltman (Paris/Miami) and Dolby Chadwick Gallery (San Francisco).