Fred Garbers was born and raised in New York City. He studied at the Art Student’s League and after military service enrolled at Cooper Union where he studied with Robert Gwathmey, Morris Kantor and Nicolas Carone. He graduated from Cooper in 1958.

He started showing in group shows while still at Cooper Union and was given his first one man show in 1959 at the Artists’ Gallery in New York. Representation by the Krasner Gallery in New York followed and when the gallery closed he continued to show in solo and group exhibitions and galleries in New York, Cincinnati, OH, and Provincetown, MA.

He is a 2006 recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant for painting. His work is in the Hirshhorn Collection, The Addison Gallery of American Art, the Butler Museum of American Art, New York State University, the Provincetown Art Association Museum, Art in Embassies, USA, and numerous private collections.

Garbers has taught painting and drawing in the SUNY system and in Truro, MA. He currently lives and works in New York City.