Guy Hepner Gallery

Terry Urban The Well Has Run Dry For Sale

Terry Urban
Terry Urban - The Well Has Run Dry, 2025, Acrylic, oil, pastel, aerosol, airbrush on canvas

The Well Has Run Dry, 2025

Acrylic, oil, pastel, aerosol, airbrush on canvas

48 x 36 in

About this work

Terry Urban's "The Well Has Run Dry" presents a visceral meditation on exhaustion and creative depletion, rendered through the artist's characteristic layering of diverse media. The 48 x 36 inch canvas reveals Urban's deliberate tension between control and chaos—precise airbrush gradients collide with gestural pastel marks, while acrylic passages push against oil-slicked surfaces that refuse to fully integrate. Aerosol hazes drift across the composition like fog settling into valleys, creating atmospheric depth that pulls the viewer into an uncertain emotional terrain. The palette oscillates between parched earth tones and surprising moments of saturated color, as if memory or hope occasionally punctures an otherwise arid landscape. Urban's mark-making ranges from aggressive, almost scratched interventions to passages of delicate, nearly translucent application, suggesting the uneven rhythms of someone drawing from reserves that have long since diminished. There is exhaustion here, but also a stubborn persistence—the work itself stands as evidence that creation continues even when the source feels depleted. This piece sits comfortably within Urban's ongoing exploration of psychological states translated through material experimentation. His refusal to settle on a single medium mirrors the contemporary condition of fragmented attention and competing demands, while his willingness to let accidents remain visible speaks to an authenticity that collectors increasingly seek. The emotional register balances melancholy with resilience, never tipping into despair but acknowledging genuine struggle. "The Well Has Run Dry" exemplifies why Urban's work resonates with audiences navigating their own cycles of depletion and renewal. For acquisition inquiries, interested collectors may contact Guy Hepner gallery directly.

Price on Application

Edition & Provenance

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

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The Well Has Run Dry

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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