Eric Aho
(b. 1966)
American
Born: Melrose, MA, USA
Eric Aho is an American painter known for his gestural, abstracted paintings that evoke natural forms. While Aho works from his impressions of the landscape, he also draws upon major pillars of art history—such as works by De Kooning and Goya—to define his compositions.
Aho studied at the Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design in London, England and received a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. In 1989 he participated in the first exchange of scholars in over thirty years between the U.S. and Cuba. He completed his graduate work at the Lahti Art Institute in Finland supported by a Fulbright Fellowship in 1991-92 and an American-Scandinavian Foundation grant in 1993.
Solo exhibitions include Eric Aho: In the Landscape at the Federal Reserve Board, Washington, DC (through November 15, 2013); Transcending Nature: Paintings by Eric Aho at the Currier Museum of Art, New Hampshire (2012); and Eric Aho: Ice Box at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in Vermont (2009). Other exhibitions have taken place at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut; Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire; Portland Art Museum, Maine; Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Maine; National Academy, New York; and American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; and Tufts University Art Collection, Medford, MA, among others. Aho’s paintings have also been shown internationally in Ireland, South Africa, Cuba, Norway, and Finland, among others.
Eric Aho was elected National Academician of the National Academy Museum in 2009. He lives and works in Saxtons River, Vermont.