Robert Urban

Artist’s Bio

Some of Robert Urban's earliest memories involve art from his childhood in Wisconsin - drawing in notebooks and going to art exhibits with his older brothers.  One significant moment in his artistic development was seeing a Van Gogh retrospective in Chicago.

After moving to Columbia, South Carolina, Urban was fortunate to have several outstanding art educators throughout his adolescent years who fostered his development as a young artist.  His high school art teachers - Kay Casey and Ansley Crawford - encouraged him to apply to the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts. He was selected into the program and attended after the sophomore year of high school.  He took his first class in sculpture under renowned artist John Acorn.  It was at the Governor's School for the Arts that Urban truly recognized his passion for art; he knew then that art would be a major force in his life.

During this same time period, Urban became involved in another of his life's passions - distance running.  His love for the freedom of the open road or trail as a runner, and later as also an avid bicyclist, profoundly influenced his appreciation for the outdoors.  Nature provided ample motivation for his creative pursuits.  Endurance sports also provided him with reflective time to meditate and the ability to look inward while taking in the beauty of the landscape.

The Art Department at the University of South Carolina provided a strong foundation for the artist's college years.  He settled into the program with a concentration in drawing, studying under Jim Steven and Roy Drasites while at USC.  It was Jim Steven who introduced Urban to acrylic glazing, a technique he became enthralled with right away and which continues to be the primary basis of his work today.  During his senior year, Urban created a series of large-scale works that broke the typical picture plane, thereby becoming three-dimensional paintings.  Each of these artworks had an installation feel to them.  This early work's influence can be seen in Urban's current use of many layers of acrylic paint to build up the surface of his mixed-media paintings.

After earning his BFA in 1990 from USC, Urban packed his art supplies and moved to California.  While there, Urban pursued graduate work in studio art at California State University, Sacramento and the San Francisco Art Institute.  During this time period, Urban took his interest in "3-D paintings" a step further and created several installations as well as earth art.  It was during this time that Urban recognized his deep affinity for nature and his interest in communicating his environmental concerns within his artwork.  The Bay Area's rich art scene - rooted in funk and a vivid color scheme - connected with his own aesthetic.  Urban's use of color and the "collage" aspect of his subject matter, can be traced to the influences of the time spent living in Northern California.

Eventually Urban returned to South Carolina and enrolled in graduate school to become an art educator.  As a young artist, Urban had been given so much encouragement by his own art instructors, he felt it was now time to try to do the same for the next generation of artists.  Upon completion of his Master's degree in art education, Urban spent five years teaching in the Columbia, SC area before accepting his current position at Dorman High School in Spartanburg, SC where he has taught for the past twenty-four years.

In 2007 he was awarded the South Carolina Secondary Art Educator of the Year Award and the following year his work was selected for inclusion in the inaugural international art publication Art Buzz: The 2008 Collection.  Once again in 2011, Urban had artwork selected for the fourth edition of Art Buzz: The 2011 Collection.  Also in 2011, Urban was selected for the book, Artists Among Us: 100 Faces of Art in Spartanburg. In 2015 Urban was one of eighteen Upstate South Carolina artists whose artwork was selected for inclusion of the interior of the Greenville Aloft Hotel. Urban was named Dorman High School’s “Teacher of the Year” in 2018 and subsequently chosen as the Spartanburg County School District Six “Teacher of the Year”. Urban's artwork is in collections throughout the Carolinas, the United States, Denmark, Switzerland, and South Korea.  He resides in Spartanburg, South Carolina.