Eric Uhlir’s earliest encounters with art began in childhood visits to LACMA with his mother and twin brother, the artist Raymond Uhlir. Long afternoons flipping through museum catalogs left early impressions of the Dutch masters and Abstract Expressionism that continue to reverberate through his work today. That foundation, rooted equally in history and gesture, remains central to his practice. Uhlir maintains an active dialogue with art history, visiting galleries and museums weekly, studying composition, symbolism, and scale to uncover new ways historical motifs can surface within contemporary painting.
Working fluidly between figuration and abstraction, Uhlir has developed a dynamic visual language that allows disparate references. Mythology, landscape, popular culture, ecological systems often coexist within a single canvas. His compositions are built through layered mark-making and physical engagement with scale; large surfaces give space for both sweeping gestures and quiet, minute moments to breathe. The paintings unfold as environments rather than images, immersive fields where history and the present intermingle.
Much of Uhlir’s practice examines contemporary life through the lens of art history and our evolving relationship with the natural world. His work suggests that the tensions of the present are rarely new but rather echoes of recurring historical patterns. Series such as Trophic Cascade and A Perilous Loop explore cycles of power, ecological fragility, and repetition, ideas that museums preserve but audiences often overlook.
In 2025, Uhlir completed the largest art commission in SoHo House history: a monumental 65-foot-long by 6.5-foot-high painting for the West Hollywood club. The work transforms the architectural corridor into an immersive narrative landscape, extending his exploration of scale, movement, and historical resonance into a spatial experience. The commission marks a significant expansion of his practice into architectural environments and international hospitality spaces.
Eric Uhlir (American, b. 1979) grew up in Southern California and earned his BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 2003. He had a solo exhibition with Winston Wachter, NY in 2024 and has exhibited at IA&A at Hillyer in Washington, DC, and with Caitlin Berry Fine Art at Culture House, among others. Recent commissions include SoHo House West Hollywood and Deloitte Consulting in Washington, DC. His work is held in private collections internationally. Uhlir maintains a studio in Los Angeles, CA.
