Gabrielle Benak

Art Instructor

Gabrielle Benak is a mixed-media artist and art educator from New York City. Gabrielle is inspired and passionate about all artistic mediums, and while she never limits her artworks to one medium, she is especially fond of watercolor painting. She teaches all of her art classes in the art studio with warmth, openness and an eagerness to connect meaningfully with her students, and holds the core belief that one of the most enriching aspects of teaching includes how much an educator can also learn from students.

Gabrielle was introduced to The Art Studio NY as a college intern in 2014, and it was then that she fell in love with teaching. She was inspired by working with students of all ages, children and adults alike, and has felt drawn to nurturing people’s love and curiosity for art ever since, while also having a passion to making art accessible to all.

In her own art studio practice, watercolor painting is central, because she is drawn to its inherent tension between control and chaos. This painting medium flows with a mind of its own, yet it can be tamed with precision. Gabrielle’s artwork focuses on themes of documentation, adornment, maximalism, and preservation. The combination of autobiography and false reality results in elaborate imagery in her multi-dimensional paintings. Each layer of pigment is both intentional and unpredictable, allowing the work to breathe and teach her along the way. For her, drawing is not only a key component of her visual language but also a meditative practice. It provides a space for stillness, focus, and connection—a quiet ritual that grounds her amidst the maximalist intricacies of her imagery.

After graduating with her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2019, Gabrielle has successfully maintained her studio art practice and has been fortunate to have had her artwork featured in a multiple gallery shows and exhibits locally and internationally. Select exhibitions to note include: “LO QUE ES IGUAL, NO ES VENTAJA”, GALERIA TIRO AL BLANCO, Guadalajara MX, presented by REGULARNORMAL (February 2025) , HARPER’S HOLIDAY: Group Exhibition, Harper’s Chelsea, NY (December 2024), Acid Garden, Charles Moffett Gallery, NY, Curated by Peter Hristoff (2022), and The Privilege of Getting Together Volume 2, Anna Zorina Gallery, New York, NY, Curated by Danny Baez (2021).

Upcoming, her work will be featured at Arrival Art Fair in North Adams, MA. Gabrielle has previous experience working as a studio technician in a ceramics studio, as well as in art-tech hardware assembly, where she created limited edition fine art video prints, resulting in a unique blend of traditional fine art mixed with new media.