David Z Orban is a New Jersey-based figurative painter. He works primarily in oils and has exhibited widely throughout the Northeast U.S.

Based in Trenton, NJ, Orban has been in more than 200 group exhibitions at galleries and museums, and had several one-person shows, including three solo shows (1986, 1987, and 1988) at Blue Mountain Gallery, then located in New York City’s Soho area. His most recent solo show was in 1991 at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ. His work is included in public and private collections, has won several awards, and has been published.

I try to find a balance between achieving a ‘realistic’ rendering and allowing the physicality of the paint – and the ‘process’ of painting – to remain visible. There’s no implied narrative in these paintings, allowing the viewer to engage with the work on their own terms

A retired B2B technology marketer, Orban is also an accomplished musician, leading The Mojo Gypsies, a blues/R&B quartet that he founded in 1998. In addition, Orban taught undergraduate-level classes for several years, at Mercer County Community College; Princeton Art Association; Artworks; and most recently at Rider University, where he taught advanced web and multimedia techniques. Orban lives with his wife, the artist Mary Yess, in a restored, 18th-century farmhouse in Hamilton, NJ.

Born

1955, Trenton, New Jersey

Education

Brooklyn College, City University of New York – B.A., 1978 cum laude; M.F.A., 1983, Charles Shaw Fellow
Studied with Philip Pearlstein, Lois Dodd, Sam Gelber, Milet Andrejevic, and Al Terris

Trenton State College (now known as The College of New Jersey) – 1976-77
Studied with Hiroshi Murata and Wendell Brooks

Mercer County Community College, West Windsor, NJ – A.A., 1975, with honors
Studied with Mel Leipzig and Frank Rivera