Eric Aho (born 1966) is an American

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

living in

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

. DC Moore Gallery in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

represents his work.

Early life and education

Aho was born in

Melrose, Massachusetts Melrose is a city located in the Greater Boston metropolitan area in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Its population as of the 2020 census was 29,817. It is a suburb located approximately seven miles north of Boston. It is situate ...

and moved to

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

with his family in 1974. His father, whose parents had emigrated from

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, worked for the

Boston and Maine Railroad The Boston and Maine Railroad was a United States, U.S. Class I railroad in northern New England. It was chartered in 1835, and became part of what was the Pan Am Railways network in 1983 (most of which was purchased by CSX in 2022). At the e ...

. Aho studied at the

Central School of Art and Design The Central School of Art and Design was a school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Crafts. ...

in London (1986–87), and received a BFA from the

Massachusetts College of Art and Design Massachusetts College of Art and Design, branded as MassArt, is a public college of visual and applied art in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1873, it is one of the nation's oldest art schools, and the only publicly funded independent art sch ...

in 1988. In 1989, he participated in the first exchange of scholars in over thirty years between the U.S. and

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. He completed his graduate work at the Lahti Art Institute (now the Lahti University of Applied Sciences) in

supported by a

Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

in 1991-92 and an

American-Scandinavian Foundation The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) is an American non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting international understanding through educational and cultural exchange between the United States and Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Swe ...

grant in 1993.

Career

Aho's paintings are noted for the way they simultaneously convey the power and fragility of nature. In an essay about Aho's painting,

Donald Kuspit Donald Kuspit (born March 26, 1935) is an American art critic and poet, known for his practice of psychoanalytic art criticism. He has published on the subjects of avant-garde aesthetics, postmodernism, modern art, and conceptual art. Educatio ...

wrote: "He is a master of the natural sublime, but he realizes that intensely experienced nature becomes uncannily abstract, with no loss of concreteness. Aho puts the sublime back in nature, suggesting its abstract structure without denying its concrete fullness." He adds, "Aho regenerates abstraction by returning to its roots in the boundless generativity of nature, and with that gives us a fresh aesthetic consciousness of it." From 1989 to 1998 Aho taught painting at the

Putney School The Putney School is an independent high school in Putney, Vermont. The school was founded in 1935 by Carmelita Hinton on the principles of the Progressive Education movement and the teachings of its principal exponent, John Dewey. It is a co-edu ...

in Putney, Vermont. Since 1998, Aho has held an adjunct position as visiting lecturer in the Graduate Light Design Program at the University of the Arts in Helsinki, Finland, and has taught at the

University of Lapland The University of Lapland ( Finnish: ''Lapin yliopisto'', Swedish: ''Lapplands universitet'') is a public university in Rovaniemi, Finland. It was established in 1979 and is the northernmost university in the European Union. Around 4,000 und ...

Rovaniemi, Finland Rovaniemi ( , ; ; ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Lapland. It is located near the Arctic Circle in the northern interior of the country. The population of Rovaniemi is approximately , while the sub-region has a population of ...

. He has been a visiting artist and

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

at the

Burren College of Art Burren College of Art is an Irish non-profit independent art college specialising in undergraduate and graduate Fine Art education, located in Ballyvaughan, County Clare, Ireland. The Master of Fine Art programme is accredited by the Universit ...

in County Clare, Ireland; the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in County Mayo Ireland; the Weir Farm National Historic Trust in

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

;

Colgate University Colgate University is a Private university, private college in Hamilton, New York, United States. The Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York ...

Hamilton, New York Hamilton is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Madison County, New York, Madison County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 6,379 at the 2020 census. The town is named after American Founding Father ...

; the National College of Art in

Oslo, Norway Oslo ( or ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of towns and cities in Norway, most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a Counties of Norway, county and a Municipalities of Norway, municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a populat ...

; the University of Art and Design in

Helsinki, Finland Helsinki () is the capital and most populous city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipality, with million in the capital region and ...

; the St. Paul's School,

Concord, New Hampshire Concord () is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Hampshire and the county seat, seat of Merrimack County, New Hampshire, Merrimack County. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 43,976, making it the List of municipalities ...

and the

Harvard Graduate School of Design The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urba ...

. Aho's exhibitions include the

Portland Museum of Art The Portland Museum of Art, or PMA, is the largest and oldest public art institution in Maine. Founded as the Portland Society of Art in 1882. It is located in the downtown area known as The Arts District in Portland, Maine. History The PMA use ...

in Portland, Maine; the

Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is located in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The Aldrich has no permanent collection and is the only museum in Connecticut that is dedicated solely to the exhibition of contemporary art. The museum presents the first ...

in Ridgefield, CT; the

Ogunquit Museum of American Art The Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA) is an art museum located in Ogunquit, Maine. The Museum officially opened in 1953 and was founded by Lost Generation artist Henry Strater. Situated near Perkins Cove, the Museum and its three acres of s ...

; the McMullen Museum at

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

; the Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Nagoya, Japan; the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...

and the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

in New York City. The

Oulu Museum of Art The Oulu Museum of Art (OMA) is an art museum in the Myllytulli neighbourhood in Oulu. It is located on the edge of the Hupisaaret Islands park. The museum was opened to the public on October 12, 1963. The first premises were in the so-called ''K ...

Oulu, Finland Oulu ( , ; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Ostrobothnia. It is located on the northwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the River Oulu. The population of Oulu is approximately , while the sub-region has a popul ...

; the Fleming Museum at the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...

; The

Currier Museum of Art The Currier Museum of Art is an art museum in Manchester, New Hampshire, in the United States. It features European and American paintings, decorative arts, photographs and sculpture. The permanent collection includes works by Picasso, Matisse, Mo ...

, Manchester, NH; the

Hood Museum of Art The Hood Museum of Art is an art museum owned and operated by Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The first reference to the development of an art collection at Dartmouth was in 1772, making the collection among the oldest and largest, a ...

, Hanover, NH and the

New Britain Museum of American Art The New Britain Museum of American Art is an art museum in New Britain, Connecticut. Founded in 1903, it is the first museum in the country dedicated to American art. A total of 72,000 visits were made to the museum in the year ending June 30, 20 ...

, CT have presented solo exhibitions. His paintings can be found in public collections throughout the country and abroad including the permanent collections of the

Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. FAMSF's combined attendance was 1,1 ...

, the Springfield Art Museum, the Currier Museum of Art, the Hood Museum of Art, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, and the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

''Ice Cuts''

In the winter of 2016, the

presented ''Eric Aho: Ice Cuts'' curated by Katherine W. Hart. Aho's paintings of stark holes cut into a frozen pond prompted Hart to call Aho "One of the leading painters of landscape and the environment of his generation." ''Ice Cuts'' also brought praise from Sebastian Smee of ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'', who wrote: "Aho’s paintings enact an answer to mysterious, counterintuitive questions. The dynamic between black water and white ice is also a correlative — natural, not forced or contrived — of the much-masticated tension in 20th-century art between abstract and representational imagery, between the real and the reproduced." Smee concluded by declaring the work "a major accomplishment." In December 2016, Smee included ''Eric Aho: Ice Cuts'' in his "year-end round up," writing, "Eric Aho’s paintings of plunge pools cut out of ice at the Hood at Dartmouth College were fresh, bold, subtle, and urgent."

Solo exhibitions

2017

* 2017: ''Eric Aho: Inflection Point'', DC Moore Gallery, New York * 2016 ** ''Eric Aho: An Unfinished Point in a Vast Surrounding'', New Britain Museum of American Art, CT ** ''Eric Aho: Ice Cuts'', Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH * 2015: ''Eric Aho: Wilderness Studio'', DC Moore Gallery, New York * 2013 ** ''Eric Aho: Translation'', DC Moore Gallery, New York ** ''Eric Aho: In the Landscape'', Federal Reserve Board, Washington * 2012: ''Transcending Nature: Paintings by Eric Aho'', Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH * 2011: ''Eric Aho: Covert'', DC Moore Gallery, New York * 2010 ** ''Occurrence'', Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee ** ''Eric Aho: Memory and Invention'', Hidell Brooks Gallery, Charlotte, NC * 2009 ** ''Eric Aho: Red Winter'', DC Moore Gallery, New York ** ''Eric Aho: Ice Box'', Brattleboro Museum, VT * 2008 ** ''Wilderness'', Alpha Gallery, Boston ** ''Outermost'', Brickwalk Fine Art, West Hartford, CT * 2007 ** ''Quarry'', Reeves Contemporary, New York ** ''New Paintings'', Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee * 2006 ** ''The Becoming Line: Pastel Drawings'', Brickwalk Fine Art, West Hartford, CT ** ''Copper Field Suite: New Monotypes'', Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT ** ''Geography IV'', Alpha Gallery, Boston ** ''Paintings'', Hidell Brooks Gallery, Charlotte, NC * 2005 ** ''New Paintings'', Reeves Contemporary, New York ** ''Paintings'', Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee ** ''Monotypes'', Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston * 2004 ** ''Paintings'', Spheris Gallery, Bellows Falls, VT ** ''New Paintings'', Alpha Gallery, Boston ** ''Texas Papers'', Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston * 2003 ** ''The Overstory'', Reeves Contemporary, New York ** ''Paintings'', Gallery BE’19, Helsinki ** ''Recent Work,'' Paesaggio Gallery, West Hartford, CT ** ''The Overhead Lake: New Paintings'', Hargate Art Center, St. Paul's School, Concord, NH ** Tremaine Gallery, Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, CT * 2002 ** ''New Paintings'', Munson Gallery, Santa Fe *** ''Watershed: Paintings of the Connecticut River Valley'', Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, NH **** ''Distances: Paintings of New England and Ireland'', Alpha Gallery, Boston * 2001 ** ''Three Counties'', Spheris Gallery, Walpole, NH ** ''The River, Field and Sky: New Paintings'', Susan Conway Gallery, Washington * 2000 ** ''Standing Still, New Paintings'', Munson Gallery, Santa Fe ** ''Pure Geography'', Barton-Ryan Gallery, Boston * 1999 ** ''The Distant Landscape: New Paintings'', Spheris Gallery, Walpole, NH ** ''New Helsinki Views'', Galleria Pintura, Helsinki ** ''A Passion for Winter'': The Landscapes of Eric Aho, Susan Conway Gallery, Washington * 1998 ** ''Recent Paintings'', Spheris Gallery, Walpole, NH ** ''The Qualities of Heaven and Earth'', Oulu City Art Museum, Finland; Vermont College, Montpelier; Embassy of Finland, Washington * 1996: ''Nocturnes: Recent Paintings by Eric Aho'', Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, Burlington * 1994: ''Paintings'', Gallery Pelin, Helsinki * 1991: ''Paintings from the Hemlock Ravine'', Tyler Gallery, Marlboro College, VT

Reviews and Press Mentions

* Spiegelman, Willard. "In Connecticut, Discovering American Art’s First Home," ''The Wall Street Journal'', August 8, 2016 * Dunne, Susan. "Eric Aho’s Wartime-Inspired Abstract Landscapes At NBMAA," ''Hartford Courant'', June 27, 2016 * Butler, Sharon. "Eric Aho Shadows His Father at the New Britain," ''Two Coats of Paint'' (Internet), July 26, 2016 * O’Shaughnessy, Tracey. ''"The Private Power of Landscapes," Waterbury Republican American'', June 5, 2016
Vermont Public Radio, 2016, "Looking Into The Ice, Saxtons River Artist Meditates On Winter"

Valley News, February 2016, "Art Notes: Painter Eric Aho Looks Deep Into a Hole in the Ice"

Art New England, March 2016, "Eric Aho, Ice Cuts"
* American Art Collector, 2016
DC Moore Gallery Art New England, July/August 2012

Art News, December 2011 "Eric Aho: DC Moore Gallery

Art in America, December 2009

Art Daily, October 2009, "First Presentation of Eric Aho's Work at DC Moore Gallery"

References

External links

DC Moore Gallery

DNA Gallery

Eric Aho biography
__NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Aho, Eric 1966 births Living people Artists from Vermont 20th-century American painters 20th-century American male artists American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design People from Melrose, Massachusetts American people of Finnish descent