Seeking a change after years of working in the music industry, Gabriel J. Shuldiner applied to Parsons because it seemed to offer “the perfect amalgamation of all things creative.” He immersed himself in painting and wrote a thesis on the color black. Shuldiner describes the Fine Arts program as “a warm, insular gold mine in the larger metropolis of The New School.”
In 2011, Shuldiner was chosen for the Bronx Museum’s Artist In the Marketplace emerging artist program. He has shown his huge highly textured black paintings at the museum, Wave Hill, and the Christopher Henry Gallery.
In 2010, Shuldiner launched Fleurs du Mal, a jewelry collection whose name was borrowed from a book of poetry by Charles Baudelaire. “My jewelry is an extension of my paintings; the body merely replaces the wall.”
“In my studio, I feel like a kid in a candy store,” says Shuldiner, who is patenting his own shade of black. “Wherever it leads, I know I am doing exactly what I should be doing.”
