Guy Hepner Gallery

Terry Urban Tejas Two Step For Sale

Terry Urban
Terry Urban - Tejas Two Step, 2025, Acrylic, oil, pastel, ink, aerosol on canvas

Tejas Two Step, 2025

Acrylic, oil, pastel, ink, aerosol on canvas

48 x 36 in

About this work

Terry Urban's "Tejas Two Step" pulses with the kinetic energy of its namesake dance, a vibrant meditation on movement, memory, and the American Southwest. Across the generous 48 x 36 inch canvas, Urban layers his signature mixed-media approach—acrylic and oil providing structural depth, while pastel, ink, and aerosol create atmospheric veils and sharp gestural interruptions. The composition appears to breathe, with warm ochres and burnt siennas evoking the Texas landscape colliding against cooler passages of dusty blue and weathered white. Marks accumulate and dissolve across the surface, suggesting both the shuffle of boots across a dance hall floor and the broader rhythms of cultural exchange that define border states. Urban's hand moves between control and spontaneity, allowing drips to travel their natural course while anchoring certain passages with deliberate, almost calligraphic strokes. This tension between chaos and intention gives the work its emotional register—simultaneously nostalgic and immediate, celebratory yet tinged with something harder to name. There is joy here, but also the kind of weariness that comes from knowing a place deeply. Within Urban's broader practice, "Tejas Two Step" represents a continued investigation into how material layering can mirror the stratification of experience and place. His refusal to settle on a single medium mirrors his subjects' refusal to be reduced to simple narratives. The work rewards extended viewing, revealing new conversations between its elements with each encounter. For inquiries about acquiring "Tejas Two Step," please contact Guy Hepner gallery in New York.

Price on Application

Edition & Provenance

Year
2025
Medium
Acrylic, oil, pastel, ink, aerosol on canvas

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Tejas Two Step

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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