Benjamin Feldshuh: A Rising Modernist Star at 88 Years Old
For decades, he pursued his psychiatry and medical career and held top posts at NYU Langone. Now that he’s closed that chapter he’s turned his attention to a passion of his youth: painting.
| 18 Feb 2026 | 08:03
Benjamin Feldshuh, 88 years old, picked up a paint brush again when he quit his job as a top psychiatrist at NYU. His abstractionist and cubist paintings will have their first public exhibition at the loft space Sixth Floor on Feb. 19. (
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Historically, critical acclaim and popularity have depended on youth and novelty. But sometimes something hits at the right time and in the right moment, adopting its own brand of fresh. Such is the case with Benjamin Feldshuh, a former top psychiatrist at NYU Langone who quit his medical career to become a rising star in the cubist and abstract art world at the age of 88.
Born in 1937 in the Bronx, Feldshuh graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1963 and went on to complete his residency at the University of Colorado. He returned to New York to cultivate his own private practice and a professor of psychology at NYU.
Of course, none of this left him with much time to paint, something he had realized as a child he was very good at. To be honest, he seems to be good at a lot of things: extremely articulate and thoughtful, perceptive and creative, all attributes which go far in both education, psychiatry and his painting. But early on, he said he was not encouraged to develop his artistic talent. The child of a stereotypically strict and demanding father, he was accused of “wasting time” painting and was steered into the more traditional, lucrative field of medicine.
Which he excelled at. He became the head of the department at NYU, but despite his workload he did indulge in painting classes taught by Sam Adler, who’s influence can be seen in his own work. “He could make paint talk,” rhapsodizes Feldshuh, and while Adler himself wasn’t particularly encouraging either, he became “the star of the class.” But when Adler told him “You can’t be what you want to be... it was over” Feldshuh said. He had one art show, decades ago, but didn’t sell a single painting. Disheartened, and also realistic, he doubled down on his psychiatric focus and put painting aside.
That is until, like so many people, Covid rolled up and forced a reevaluation of priorities. At that point, Feldshuh quit NYU, despite them having offered him multiple promotions in the department.
“Covid dislodged me from psychiatry,” and he said he began realizing the value of life over the value of money, in a sense going against the values ingrained in him by his father since childhood.
He can still recall the first painting he ever made, a watercolor of a submarine he made in kindergarten. The amazement he felt at being able to translate an image from his mind into an actual, visible reality became a feeling he said he needed to feel that again.
But fundamentally he painted for himself, as a creative outlet. It wasn’t until a chance encounter at Gemini Diner with Hera co-founder and CEO, Jenny Lee and her head of marketing, Lauren Hollenberg. Hera is a company of senior care experts, so they had approached him, breakfasting alone, simply as a neighborly gesture. In conversation, they were intrigued by his story, and accompanied him across the street to his Kips Bay apartment, where he showed them some the work he had there: hundreds of paintings populating the space.
They were astounded by the breadth and quality of his work, and that was just a portion of what Feldshuh has created (he has more in a storage unit). He says he felt a “strong emotional shock,” that somebody actually wanted and admired his paintings.
Until recently, Feldshuh had never sold a painting, but since Hera’s promotion of his work, they are selling at an unthinkable velocity. His art is extremely personal, imagery of his travels and experiences, his imagination and passions. He said he only paints “what’s inside my mind, and the world around me,” although he admits he does “love trees,” and they are often incorporated into his work. He said he “doesn’t like rules,” and his art shares stylistic elements with Adler, but also such greats as Matisse and Picasso. Earlier works feature a more muted color palette and hazier imagery, but his more recent pieces are bold strokes of vibrant shades and striking silhouettes, featuring his favorite “bright colors; red and oranges and yellows” set off with striking cobalt and jade. He says when he is painting, he’s “not thinking about money at all,” but has been absolutely delighted that people are beginning to value his creations, some of which are now selling for upwards of a thousand dollars each.
He had stopped painting for a while when he closed his practice, consumed with the mundanity of doing so, but is now revitalized in delving back in. With the help of Hera, he will have his first show on Feb. 19th. It was originally scheduled to be held at the Hera headquarters in Chelsea, but turnout quickly exceeded the capacity of their office and was relocated to The Sixth Floor, a loft event space near Union Square. Many of the paintings that Hera featured online have sold already, but Feldshuh has a trove yet to be unveiled, as well as a renewed ardor to create more. He has become an overnight sensation, eighty-eight years in the making.