.....Born in 1936 in Brussels, Sam Kirszencwajg has had a dramatic and eventful life. During WWII, he and his younger sister were placed in foster homes and hidden by the Belgian underground; his father died in a concentration camp. In 1952, he and his sister and mother immigrated to the United States. In the early 1950's, he received a scholarship to study drawing at the Silvermine Guild in New Canaan, Connecticut; this was followed by attending Parsons School of Design (NYC) on a working scholarship. Among his teachers were Richard Linder, Stephen Greene, Paul Brach and critic/historian Leo Steinberg. During that time he came in personal contact with the abstract expressionists, early pop artists, conceptualists and photographers of that era. In 1958 he was working for Macy's and in '59 he joined the Army Reserve, spending six months of active duty at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. By '63 he was in St. Croix working with a disciple of Buckminster Fuller on geodesic domes.

.....Returning to NYC in 1964, he married and lived in the East Village. He continued to illustrate and design for various magazines and animated films. In 1969, he and his wife and their two small children sold all their possessions and went to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. There, he taught drawing, painting and multi-media sculpture at the Instituto Allende and began his series of paintings: "Les Demoiselles de San Miguel". After teaching and painting in Mexico for three years, he and his family moved to Los Angeles where he resumed his career in illustration — working in animation and feature films.
In 1973 he became gravely ill with hemolytic anemia. Told his illness was terminal, he was put on a heavy regimen of steroids. During this period, struck by the dehumanization of the patient thrust into an institutional situation, he began a new series of drawings, using only hospital materials (barium, mercurochrome, gentian violet, cotton swabs, etc.). This body of work, titled "The Hospital Series", is surrealistic and reflects the artist's concept (and personal experience) of the effect of modern technology on man.

In 1975, his ilness receded and he returned to working in animation. He was involved in various projects as a designer and as a director of T.V. commercials, T.V. specials and films.
In 1983, he decided to resume drawing and painting on a full time basis. He moved to a downtown L.A. studio and began to work again. This work followed progressively from his "Hospital Series". The theme was: "dehumanization of the body — buoyed by the spiritual source".

In 1989, he returned to New York where he again fell ill and was hospitalized with pneumonia. He began to paint again and rented a loft in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. During that time he exhibited at the Strauss Gallery in NYC and was awarded a Pollack-Krasner grant for painting. In 1992, he returned to California and settled in San Pedro, where he still presently resides and occupies a hillside studio at the Angels Gate Culture Center overlooking the vast Port of Los Angeles.