A collection of work from various periods since 2000 by Huntsville artist Bill Urban, is currently showing at Renee’s Café in South River.

The show runs through to the end of February.

Urban grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he studied painting at Carnegie Mellon University (formerly Carnegie Institute of Technology) in the early 1960s.  He was strongly influenced by abstract expressionism and east coast (New York) movements of that period.  

Over the years Urban has developed a somewhat hard-edged version of expressionism, which sometimes converges with personal symbolism and figurative abstraction.  

His work was featured prominently in the Huntsville area in the  summer of ‘07 when Huntsville Festival of the Arts commissioned a work for festival graphics to be used on posters, banners, and brochure and program covers.  

Urban has exhibited in the United States and Canada. Recent shows include the Chapel Gallery in Bracebridge (2006), and the Paul Morin Gallery in Rockwood, Ont. (2007).  

Urban explains that his work is “an expression of the human experience, the thrill of everyday life, of being alive. More and more I get inspiration from the earth itself.”  

This awareness of the thrill of everyday life, of looking for beauty in mundane activities is apparent in works such as the Compost in the Snow series, and in Grass Roots and Rocks. Anyone who knows Muskoka will appreciate the imagery in  Smelts and Sun, Ice, Snow.

Urban’s social concerns are evident in the works on paper in the Landmines series, while personal symbolism shows up in The Nursing Home and Burial.

“Recently I have combined a need for hard-edge precision with what would seem to be a conflicting desire for the free and loose application of paint,” Urban said.

While he feels that there is no specific theme in his work,  the paintings are similar. “(That) being the result of the same creative process — as in a family, siblings are related to each other, but remain individual.”

Urban is also known in the area as a clarinet player and leader of Trillium Jazz. He is also the father of children’s entertainer and musician, Funky Mama Georgia Urban (www.thefunkymamas.com).

For more information on Bill Urban’s work, go to www.billurban.ca.

Renee’s Café features homemade meals and snacks, shows by regional artists and craftsmen, and live music on a weekly basis.  Contact information  is 705-386-0977 or online at www.renees.net.