Joseph Urbania (also Josef Urbanija or Josip Vrbanija) (February 16, 1877 – June 10, 1943) was a 20th-century Slovene sculptor, who lived and worked in Austria for much of his life.

At age 21, Joseph Urbania joined the Slovenian Army, during which time he was commissioned by Captain H. Wesshuber, to carve a large figure called Homeland (exhibited in Ljubljana, 1903).

Instead, she said, "The Slovenian sculptors between 1890 and 1920 worked in an academically realistic, neo-baroque, neo-classical style, while they focused on social, mythological, biblical, historical and poetic motifs.

[12] Other religious-themed pieces include: a maple wood carving of Christus Ascending (1931, now in Kenosha, Wisconsin);[13][14] several marble statues at the Parish Church of St. Elisabeth, including Immaculata and Two Cherubim (with sculptor Alojzij Progar);[15] St. Hubertus (1909) and St. Anthony and Child (1934);[16] and an important burial chapel piece called Resurrection (1910, made by the artists' group at the Grošlje Workshop for a burial chapel in Škofja Loka), sometimes credited as the sole work of Ivan Zajec.

[17] Other statues and reliefs include: The Carrier of the Vase (1909); Absolvo Te (1910);[18] Rokoborca (The Wrestlers) in 1913;[19] Danica-Zarji (1913); Sejalec (1914); Monument to the Fallen (WWI Soldiers Cemetery in Sarajevo) in 1918; a carved wood statue In Nature (Flying Left) in 1922; a marble Holy Family (1926 – now in Chicago); Turn (1930); a bronze figure Girl with Grapes and Bear (1935);[20] and a pear wood carved Mother (Ladies with a Child) in 1939.

The 1931 white maple carved work became internationally famous in 1954, when thieves broke into Zerk's Wisconsin mansion and stole more than $200,000 worth of paintings, gems and art.

According to the Slovenian Biographical Lexicon,[5] Urbania's contemporaries described his work (see V. Levstik, LZ 1909, 528,[5] as "possessing a happy warmth and homey simplicity, although the technique is well-schooled and immaculate."

Still others (F. Kozak in connection with the Krekov monument's draft, LZ 1918, 295),[5] argued, "much of his art is idealized and depicted in a kind of modern Baroque and poetic realism."