Fabien Edelstam was born in Stockholm in 1965. After graduating from the Beckmans designhögskola (Beckmans School of Design and Fashion) in Stockholm (1986-1989), he moved to Paris to attend the Académie de la Grande Chaumière (1990-1991). He has lived and worked in the French capital ever since.
From 1997 onwards, his commissioned portraits have gained in recognition, partly as a result of his fragmentary approach to representative images, which allows him to play with the idea of wholeness. Using this signature technical twist, Edelstam has captured the likenesses of figures in the public eye, including Giorgio Armani (2004), Ralph Lauren (2009), former President of the Swiss Confederation Adolf Ogi (2011), Queen Silvia of Sweden (2013) and, of course, Paul-Henri Spaak (2014), whose portrait was unveiled in Parliament in Brussels in the presence of the politician’s daughter, Ms Antoinette Spaak, Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and the then President of the European Parliament, Mr Martin Schulz.
This artistic relationship with media and political circles explains the presence of Edelstam’s artwork in numerous official buildings, including the UN, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swiss Confederation, UNESCO, the Swedish embassy in Paris, the Wallenberg Foundations, Banque Havilland (Monaco, London and Luxemburg), the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm, Merchant Ivory Productions, eOffice in the UK, Banque Mirabaud, Bird & Bird (Paris, Madrid and Abu Dhabi), White & Case (Brussels), Bonnier Publications, Glatzová & Co. in Prague and Dewey & LeBoeuf in Paris, the Swedish Mission to NATO, Ralph Lauren, Ferrari at Silverstone and the Italian company Motta.