Eric Aho studied at the Central School of Art and Design in London 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 US 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. He has been a visiting artist at the Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland; The Ballinglen Arts Foundation in County Mayo, Ireland; the Wier Farm National Historic Trust in Connecticut; Colgate University in Hamilton, New York; the National College of Art in Oslo, Norway; and, the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland.
Aho’s paintings have been included in numerous one person and group exhibitions including the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Connecticut; the Fleming Art Museum at the University of Vermont; the Oulu City Art Museum, Oulu, Finland; the Fitchburg Art Museum in Fitchburg, Massachusetts; the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College; and, the Philadelphia Art Alliance. His work is included in the current exhibition, “The American River” at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut, organized by the Great River Arts Institute.
He has received the Julius Hallgarten Prize in 1998 and the John Koch Award for Painting in 2000 from the National Academy Museum in New York City. Over the past several years, his work has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation; the Vermont Arts Council; the National Endowment for the Arts; the American Scandinavian Foundation; the Finlandia Foundation; the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in County Mayo, Ireland; and the Vermont Community Foundation.
Aho taught painting at the Putney School in Putney, Vermont from 1989 to 1998 as well the Theater Academy of Finland in Helsinki, Finland; University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland; the National College of Art and Design in Oslo, Norway; the Harvard Graduate School of Design; Colgate University; and St. Pauls’ School in Concord, New Hampshire.