Eric Rhein

Raised in New York’s Hudson River Valley, and spending childhood summers in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky, Eric Rhein (b. 1961) formed a deep affinity with nature, which continues to inspire his multidisciplinary artwork. Influenced by the luminous landscapes that inspired the Hudson River School, Rhein’s art forges an intimate metaphysical and transcendental connection between man and nature. His work examines the liminal spaces between life and death, the tangible and the ephemeral, and the known and ethereal. He addresses the universal aspects of the human condition—particularly its vulnerability, resilience, and possibilities for transcendence—as experienced after his diagnosis with HIV in 1987. His work has been exhibited internationally at venues such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; New Art Gallery, Walsall; Pera Museum, Istanbul; American embassies in Austria, Cameroon, and Malta; Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts; Lincoln Center, New York; Morris Museum, Morristown, New Jersey; Islip Art Museum, East Islip, New York; Leslie-Lohman Museum, New York; and Portland Museum of Art, Maine.