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		Happenings in the Keweenaw Peninsula December 4, 2003 Text © 2003 Finlandia University Press Releases. Photos of Eric Aho's paintings © 2003 Finlandia University. Reprinted with permission.

Artist Eric Aho to speak at Finnish-American art reception Dec. 5, Finnish Independence Day Celebration Dec. 7

HANCOCK -- An opening reception for the 13th Annual Contemporary Finnish-American Artist Series Exhibition: The Northern Memory, paintings by internationally recognized artist Eric Aho, will be held from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 5, at the Finnish-American Heritage Center Gallery in Hancock. 

Eric Aho's painting, "Nyland," Oil on Linen, 60" x 60" 1999, is part of the 13th Annual Contemporary Finnish-American Artist Series Exhibition: The Northern Memory, on display in the Finnish-American Heritage Center in Hancock through Dec. 31, 2003. (Photo © 2003 and courtesy Finlandia University. Reprinted with permission.)

Finland, Aho's ancestral home, has been the inspiration for many of his paintings. Aho will give a brief talk at the opening reception. Refreshments will be served. The reception is open and free to the public.

Finlandia University to celebrate 86th Finnish Independence Day Dec. 7

"Finland won their independence from Russia 86 years ago," said Jim Kurtti, Director of the Finnish-American Heritage Center and Editor of the Finnish-American Reporter.

In addition to Eric Aho's presentation, Kurtti said, students from Finland -- as well as university students studying Finnish at Finlandia, area high school and elementary schools -- will be part of the program.

"A vignette from "Seitsemän veljestä" (Seven Brothers) will be presented by our Finnish exchange students," Kurtti noted. "This vignette is significant in that it represents a portion of the first Finnish piece of literature printed in Finnish."

The public is invited to enjoy the entertainment and Finnish refreshments and to view the exhibit of Eric Aho's work in the Gallery. 

Finland's light-filled northern landscapes have been a continuing presence in Aho's artwork. Art critic and essayist John Arthur notes, " Finland is Eric Aho's ancestral home and perhaps it is his spiritual home as well." Supported by a Fulbright Fellowship and an American-Scandinavian Foundation Grant, Aho traveled to Finland from 1991-93 to complete his graduate studies in art at the Lahti Art Institute. During his studies, Aho became captivated by Finland's wide open spaces and ever-changing light.

"Landscape Remembered from the Train," Oil on Linen,  36" x 70" 1999, is another Eric Aho painting on exhibit in the Finnish-American Heritage Center in Hancock. Aho studied art in Finland from 1991-93. (Photo © 2003 and courtesy Finlandia University. Reprinted with permission.)

Beyond depicting a particular place, Aho's paintings convey the experience of what he describes as the "austere quality of the landscape."

Robert Smith of ARTnews offers this description of Aho's work: "In a spare style that borders on abstraction, he paints scenes of dramatic, cloud-filled skies anchored in narrow bands of land: a frozen lake; a far-off stand of firs; open fields; and remote rural villages that stretch into the background." 

Aho paints smaller canvases "en plein air" (painting a scene directly outside) while his larger paintings are painted in his studio from memories and impressions of the landscape. In his painting, Eric Aho distills and refines landscape elements to extract the essentials of time, light and the ambiance of a place.

"Some people like to add, add, add. But my sense is to put things down, and gradually pull them away, take away what really isn't necessary to make a believable space." Aho notes.

His paintings remain as poetic visions, capturing both the mood and the timelessness of the landscape. The Northern Memory exhibit will feature several large canvases depicting the Finnish Baltic coastline at night and a group of smaller plein-air paintings Aho painted this summer while traveling in Scandinavia.

His Finnish heritage has played an important role in shaping his paintings. 

"The places I paint in Finland, while depicting similar subjects also represent family stories, lost relatives, unions of countries at peace and the dissolution of borders during wartime. In the yellow stone church at the edge of a rye field in Sysmä, Finland, where my grandparents were baptized, in the glacial track of geography and history through central Finland, Lapland and Finnmark I find a changing landscape which I have inherited in part through fragments of a language, culture and childhood stories and in part through painting," Aho states.

Eric Aho studied at the Central School of Art and Design in London, England, and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston in 1988. In 1989 he participated in the first exchange of scholars in over thirty years between the United States and Cuba. His work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally. His paintings are represented in private and public collections throughout the country and abroad including the permanent collection of the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, the Union Bank of Scandinavia, the Fleming Museum, the Oulu City Art Museum and the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.

Aho is very active as a visiting artist and has completed residencies at the Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland, the National College of Art in Oslo, Norway, and the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland. He has been the recipient of recent fellowships from the Vermont Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Vermont Community Foundation and the Finlandia Foundation. Aho lives and works in Saxtons River, Vermont.

The Northern Memory will be on exhibit through December 31, 2003. Gallery hours are Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., or by appointment. For more information please call (906) 487-7500.

For more information on Finnish Independence Day, please contact James N. Kurtti, Finlandia University. Phone: 906-487-7302. Fax: 906-487-7557.

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