David Urban (b. 1966, Toronto) is widely regarded as one of Canada’s leading contemporary painters, celebrated for his bold fusion of abstraction and representation. Born in Toronto in 1966, Urban studied poetry and painting at York University, graduating in 1989 with a BFA in Visual Arts and a BA in English Literature. He went on to earn a master’s degree in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Windsor in 1991, where he studied with Alistair MacLeod, and an MFA in Painting from the University of Guelph in 1993.

Since his debut solo exhibition at Toronto’s Sable-Castelli Gallery in 1994—an exhibition that sold out and garnered critical acclaim—Urban has emerged as a defining voice in Canadian abstraction. His early works drew comparisons to Jonathan Lasker and Cézanne, while quickly affirming a distinctive, personal language rooted in modernist traditions.

Urban’s practice is defined by dynamic collisions of line and shape, rhythmic geometries, and a vibrant, intuitive colour sense. Lyrical forms dance across colour fields, animated by gestural brushstrokes and a structural rigor that recalls both the history of abstraction and the immediacy of improvisation. His paintings are layered, kinetic, and deeply considered—works that embody the physicality of sound, memory, and imagination while balancing the tensions between abstraction and representation.

As Roald Nasgaard observed in his landmark Abstract Painting in Canada, Urban’s paintings reconstruct “the possibility of belief in art as a transformative power, an actual usable force that enables us to understand the world.” His ability to marry a personally identifiable aesthetic with a deep respect for the history of painting has made him one of the most prescient abstract painters working today.

A true polymath—poet, musician, and scholar—Urban integrates his wide-ranging creative pursuits into his painting practice. His brushwork is informed by music’s rhythmic structures, his sense of imagery by literature and memory, and his colour harmonies by a profound knowledge of art history. He has written essays, delivered lectures, and curated major exhibitions, including Painters 15 (2002), which introduced Canadian painting to audiences at the Shanghai Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art.

Over the past three decades, Urban has presented more than 30 solo exhibitions and participated in nearly 40 group shows. His work has been featured in major national and international institutions and has been written about in publications including Art in America. He has served as Koerner Artist-in-Residence at Queen’s University and is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Urban’s paintings are held in numerous prestigious collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, as well as significant private and corporate collections worldwide. For collectors, his work represents not only a vital chapter in the trajectory of Canadian painting but also a deeply resonant and enduring exploration of the transformative power of art.

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