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Artist’s Bio
Some of the earliest memories I have from my childhood in Wisconsin involve art – drawing in notebooks
and going to art exhibits with my older brothers. One significant exhibit in my development was seeing a
Van Gogh retrospective in Chicago.
After moving to the Columbia, South Carolina area, I was fortunate to have several outstanding art
educators who fostered my development as a young artist. In high school I was encouraged to apply to
the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and was selected into the program. Attending the
Governor’s School changed my life. I knew then that art would be a major force in the rest of my life.
I attended the University of South Carolina, settling into the B.F.A. program with a concentration in
drawing. During my senior year I started to create paintings that "broke the typical picture plane", in that
they became three-dimensional paintings. Looking back, I can now see that this early work has
influenced my current work in my use of layers. Artistic influences during this time, and continue to be,
include Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Anselm Keifer, and Robert Longo.
After earning my Bachelor's degree at USC, I spent a year enrolled in the graduate program in studio art
at California State University at Sacramento and briefly attended the San Francisco Art Institute. During
this time, I took my "three-dimensional paintings" a step further by creating several installations and Earth
Art. After some time in California I decided to come back to USC for graduate school to become an art
educator.
Upon completion of my Master's degree in art education, I spent five years teaching in the Columbia area
before accepting a teaching position at Dorman High School in Spartanburg where I have taught for the
past twelve years. Currently I serve as the Fine Arts Department Chairperson at Dorman; additionally, I
am a member of the twelve-artist contemporary art collaborative CAFfeine (Contemporary Art Forum)
based out of Greenville, SC.
| Robert M. Urban |