Eric Aho At Alpha Gallery

2 cols

Eric Aho, “Fire Three,” 2007, oil on linen, 50 by 70 inches.

FOR 5/9

ALPHA GALLERY ERIC AHO W/ 1 CUT

set 4/29 AK/cD #737467

BOSTON, MASS. — Eric Aho’s new paintings at Alpha Gallery, on view through June 4, examine a wide scope of interests ranging from purely visual and material concerns, to narrative and symbolic content, as well as to the delicate balance of abstraction and representation for which his work has become known.

“Wilderness,” contains a thread of autobiography underscoring and personalizing the extremes of contrast inherent in nature. Aho’s paintings of ice reflect interests in Finnish sauna culture, Nineteenth Century arctic exploration and his father’s Depression-era stories of ice harvesting in a small Massachusetts town. The invented forest fires have their observed beginnings in the controlled brushfires of a local farmer and end as surrogate expressions of raging, imaginative thoughts.

Alpha Gallery is at 38 Newbury Street. For information, www.alphagallery.com or 617-536-4465.