Gabriel Warren graduated from both Phillips Academy Andover (1973) and Rhode Island School of Design (1978). He also attended Amherst College (Amherst, MA) and Tyler Rome. He spent 6th and 11th grade as the only foreigner in French schools, in different parts of the country.

However, he considers his real education regarding sculpture and the rest of the physical world to derive from extensive industrial experience, often– but not exclusively– around boats. Examples include chief engineer of a fleet of oyster boats from 28 to 120 feet; he was also maintenance officer and relief captain of a 70′ Chesapeake Bay Bugeye replica serving both as a school ship and ecological research vessel. As well, he worked for a company building aluminum boats, and built solo an 11,000# schooner of his own design that over almost thirty years proved her abilities in heavy conditions offshore. He has been a private pilot since 2005.