Guy Hepner Gallery

Terry Urban After We Die For Sale

Terry Urban
Terry Urban - After We Die, Acrylic, oil, pastel, ink on canvas

After We Die

Acrylic, oil, pastel, ink on canvas

36 x 36 in

About this work

Terry Urban's "After We Die" presents a contemplative meditation on mortality and transcendence, rendered in the artist's characteristic mixed-media approach that layers acrylic, oil, pastel, and ink on a substantial 36 x 36 inch canvas. The work demonstrates Urban's facility with multiple materials, each medium contributing distinct textural qualities that create visual depth and complexity across the picture plane. The interplay between the fluid transparency of ink washes and the more assertive opacity of oil and acrylic passages generates a push-pull dynamic that keeps the eye moving through the composition. The emotional register of the piece oscillates between melancholy and something approaching peaceful acceptance, a duality embedded in the title's matter-of-fact acknowledgment of human finitude. Urban avoids morbidity in favor of a more philosophical stance, inviting viewers to sit with questions rather than demanding answers. The pastel elements introduce moments of unexpected softness, perhaps suggesting that what follows death might hold gentleness rather than void. Within Urban's broader practice, "After We Die" represents the artist's ongoing engagement with existential themes filtered through a distinctly contemporary visual language. The work refuses easy categorization, existing somewhere between abstraction and figuration, between spontaneous gesture and deliberate mark-making. This tension animates the canvas and speaks to Urban's interest in capturing liminal states and transitional moments. The square format creates a sense of balance and containment, grounding heavier subject matter in formal stability. For acquisition inquiries regarding "After We Die," interested collectors are encouraged to contact Guy Hepner gallery directly.

Price on Application

Edition & Provenance

Medium
Acrylic, oil, pastel, ink on canvas

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After We Die

About Terry Urban

Terry Urban was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and moved to San Diego after high school to pursue skateboarding, where he was first introduced to turntablism. He returned to Cleveland to work as a DJ, later landing a role at Sirius Satellite Radio, before relocating to New York City in 2006 to focus on music full time. He built a career producing mixtapes, including Viva la Hova, Southerngold, and Biggie Stardust, earning recognition from artists including Jay-Z, Coldplay, and Drake.

In 2015, after more than a decade in the music industry, Urban returned to painting, treating it as a new creative outlet and eventually a full-time practice. His work is bold and gestural, combining vibrant color with symbolic, often somber imagery, including skulls, bones, and fragmented figures that speak to mortality, resilience, and inner conflict. Despite the weight of his subject matter, his paintings carry an underlying sense of energy and momentum, shaped by the same restless drive that carried him through skateboarding and music.

Urban brings a disciplined, almost ritualistic approach to his studio practice, working extended painting sessions often set against music or film. His path from street culture to music to visual art has become part of his artistic identity, and his work resonates as a document of reinvention as much as a body of paintings.

Guy Hepner works with collectors seeking Terry Urban's bold, symbolic paintings shaped by his path through music and street culture. Contact us to discuss available inventory or to inquire about upcoming releases.

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