Creating art is something 88-year-old Benjamin Feldshuh has been doing his entire life.

He remembered the first time he picked up a paintbrush at 4 years old.

What You Need To Know

The paintings of 88-year-old Benjamin Feldshuh will be on display at a one-night gallery near Union Square on Thursday

He said he didn’t have the resources to do what he loved growing up, and instead joined the air force and later studied at Columbia University

Feldshuh said he lost his love of painting until he met Jenny Lee, the co-founder of Hera

Lee helped him set up the gallery, which will be held at Peerspace

“I let myself paint whatever I wanted to paint. And I painted a submarine with no forethought,” he told NY1.

Feldshuh grew up in Brooklyn and said he didn’t have the resources to do what he loved most.

“Poverty was my experience, and it didn’t even give me the money to buy paper or pen or ink or anything like that,” he said.

After graduating from Boys’ High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, he enlisted in the air force and eventually went to Columbia University to become a psychiatrist. But all along, Feldshuh said painting was his passion.

“When you paint, you create a reality that’s as strong as the real world,” he said.

After 50 years of painting, he wanted to share his art with the world. He spent $10,000 on a show, but it didn’t turn out how he had hoped.

“Everybody loved the paintings. No one bought anything,” he said. “I made a terrible decision of not caring anymore and then just painting for myself.”

He said it left him feeling discouraged, and he resigned himself to art just being a hobby. Feldshuh stopped painting completely five years ago.

“In the last couple of years, it’s drained my motivation to paint,” he said.

That was until a few months ago, when he was having his daily breakfast at Gemini Diner. Feldshuh said he met someone who would change his life — Jenny Lee.

Lee is the co-founder of Hera, a company focused on helping families navigate caring for older adults on Medicare. She said she felt his story was worth sharing.

“We love older adults, and he was eating breakfast alone and so we just walked up to him, started chatting,” she told NY1. “He said, ‘I really fear that after I pass, no one will have ever seen my art.’ And that just stuck with us because I think a big part of aging is, oftentimes, we hear they feel invisible and they don’t feel seen.”

That same day, after going to Feldshuh’s apartment and seeing his paintings, Lee organized an art show to celebrate his work.

She posted about Feldshuh’s paintings on Hera’s TikTok, where one video got more than 70,000 views.

“We just felt, like, this immense pull from the community of interest in his art. And luckily, you know, with how many people are interested, Peerspace had reached out. They offered an event space so we could actually host more people. And it just grew organically,” Lee said.

Over 700 people have RSVP’d to the one-night gallery happening near Union Square on Thursday evening.

“It’s beautiful to see the community rally around someone who’s felt so invisible for so long,” Lee said.

Feldshuh said he is feeling “overwhelmed.”

“It’s almost too much to think about,” he said. “And the experience itself, I think, will change me.”

Hera helped him sell about 20 of his paintings so far, and 100% of the profits go straight to Feldshuh.

He said his newfound success has fueled his creativity, and he is now painting again after five years of not touching his easel.

“I’ve got an audience that people want to see my work, they want to see what I say and what I think and how I present my ideas. And now I can, I’m motivated to, I’ve never been motivated as strongly as I am now,” Feldshuh said. “I intend to work as a painter every day, like I’m supposed to, and like Picasso worked.”