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Welcome to the website of Artist Brian Shapiro, who has created over 4000 artworks over fifty years of continuous art production. This website shows a small sampling of original works. All paintings are oil on canvas unless noted.
Please visit the galleries listed below and don't forget to contact us ( click here ) to receive updates on upcoming auctions, sales and news, or to Inquire about original paintings or drawings. Prices available upon request. A "SOLD" work may be a starting point for your commission. If you have a special affinity for an image already sold, another version can be created for you. Featured Paintings
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About the Artist
Brian Shapiro was born in Rochester New York in 1942 with a cleft palette and harelip. Looking in a mirror it looked like I had been hit in the face with an axe. I found comfort in isolation and art. I won a city-wide competition to the RIT school of art and design. A close friend brought guns to “play”.resulting in a fatal accidental shooting. I swore I would not waste my life but devote it to art.
After two years I entered the School of the Art Institute of Chicago I won acclaim. I was consumed with art. Then one bitterly cold winter night the girl I was living with took LSD and walked into Lake Michigan. She was found a week later. Had I known what she had done I would have followed her. Years later I married another student and left Chicago with my wife and twin girls and moved to rural Wisconsin where I designed and physically built four private homes. After ten years I met Richard Dreyfuss who said I had Carte Blanche to do what I wanted on his movie sets.
I moved to Hollywood where I became the first painter to have a one person show at the Motion Picture Academy. Fifty-five paintings were shown at the Smithsonian Exhibition. The State Department sent paintings to Europe. After ten years I felt I had exhausted my enthusiasm for Hollywood and needed to explore my Jewish roots. I made several trips to Israel . My second wife and I moved to rural New York where I continued a series of American Jewish life.
As I embark on the final passages of my life I am grateful for the blessings, the people and the art. I hope that I have accomplished what was wished for me.
After two years I entered the School of the Art Institute of Chicago I won acclaim. I was consumed with art. Then one bitterly cold winter night the girl I was living with took LSD and walked into Lake Michigan. She was found a week later. Had I known what she had done I would have followed her. Years later I married another student and left Chicago with my wife and twin girls and moved to rural Wisconsin where I designed and physically built four private homes. After ten years I met Richard Dreyfuss who said I had Carte Blanche to do what I wanted on his movie sets.
I moved to Hollywood where I became the first painter to have a one person show at the Motion Picture Academy. Fifty-five paintings were shown at the Smithsonian Exhibition. The State Department sent paintings to Europe. After ten years I felt I had exhausted my enthusiasm for Hollywood and needed to explore my Jewish roots. I made several trips to Israel . My second wife and I moved to rural New York where I continued a series of American Jewish life.
As I embark on the final passages of my life I am grateful for the blessings, the people and the art. I hope that I have accomplished what was wished for me.
Notes : Featured Paintings
"Girl Blessing the Torah" Shown at the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum, New York. Also to be used as cover art for "Jewish Identity in American Art", Syracuse University Press, 2020
"Shtetl" Brian's painting depicts a community of Jewish people forced to flee their homes, led by an old bearded man carrying a Torah to a new life illuminated with the light before them and fire behind. In the Israel Gallery.
Two excellent reviews of Brian's Midrash paintings by artist and writer Richard McBee can be seen by clicking here and here
"Shtetl" Brian's painting depicts a community of Jewish people forced to flee their homes, led by an old bearded man carrying a Torah to a new life illuminated with the light before them and fire behind. In the Israel Gallery.
Two excellent reviews of Brian's Midrash paintings by artist and writer Richard McBee can be seen by clicking here and here
Galleries
Cape Cod paintings
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Hudson River Valley Paintings
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Cityscape & Landscape Galleries
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Hollywood
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Jewish Life and Culture
Galleries
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At Work
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Family Gallery
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Portraits
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Drawings
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Miscellaneous
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Please contact us by using our e-mail address or phone number below.
We'd love to hear from you.
Brian Shapiro
Phone: 845-524-4706
E-Mail: [email protected]
We'd love to hear from you.
Brian Shapiro
Phone: 845-524-4706
E-Mail: [email protected]