Eric Aho: Meaning lurks below the surface of landscapes
Review by James Auer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 21, 2003
A glance through Eric Aho's lengthy resume reveals that, at one time, he received a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. And that, my friends, is a dead giveaway.
Aho may, at first glance, appear to be a most accomplished landscapist, but in reality he is an abstract-expressionist using farm buildings and turbulent skies as bait for viewers. His latest oil paintings, suavely brushed and knowingly layered, are in reality artworks about art. On view through Saturday at the Tory Folliard Gallery, the paintings chronicle the adventures and excesses of paint itself - its delicious swirls and delicate nuances of tone and hue.
Once hooked by his barns, trees, skies and gleaming light sources, you relish Aho's finesse. He serves up a savory buffet of sensuous possibilities, tasty yet classy. Born in Massachusetts and reared in New Hampshire, Aho, 37, remains moored to the more muted aspects of New England's geographic sensibility. "Edge of Weather Over North Atlantic" is subtly sculptural. Its brush strokes dance, rhythmically and in terms of plasticity. "Black Turn in the River" is more expressionistic still, with the merest touch of pink at the far horizon.
My favorite image, however, is "Winter Nocturnal Barn Reflecting Lights." This clumsy title is attached to a profoundly lyrical exercise in the painterly delineation of nocturnal form, light and color. Understatement enhances the work's inherent power. Thus, Aho escapes subject matter entirely and immerses himself in the limitless potential of his medium.
William Nichols
