Schnabel has established himself as one of the significant creative voices of his generation. As a painter, sculptor, filmmaker, stage set designer and architectural designer, he has collaborated with artists of almost every discipline of the visual and performing arts.

Schnabel began his career as an artist at the University of Houston and was the subject of his first one-person museum exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston in 1976. His works have been exhibited all over the world and has been the subject of retrospective exhibitions at the Tate Gallery, London, The Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, The Tamayo Museum, Mexico City, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, and numerous other museums.

He is an award-winning film director with the features "Basquiat" and "Before Night Falls" to his credit. Schnabel currently lives and works in New York City, Montauk, New York, and San Sebastian, Spain.