Meet the artist behind Soho House’s largest-ever global commission
Southern California-born talent Eric Uhlir unveils his supersized masterpiece at Soho House West Hollywood
Wednesday 1 October 2025 By Emma McCarthy
Here at Soho House, we take our art seriously. There are, after all, more than 10,000 works on permanent display in our clubs around the world – each collection site specific and curated by our in-house team of experts.
At Soho House West Hollywood, the extensive collection is formed almost exclusively from local artists born, based or trained in Los Angeles to reflect the city’s creative culture. In 2023, it was refreshed entirely by Kate Bryan, Soho House’s Chief Art Director, and Art Collection Manager, Anakena Paddon, to celebrate 20 years of Soho House in North America.
This year, as part of our new-look interiors transformation, our House on Sunset Boulevard is unveiling a new custom commission with contemporary artist Eric Uhlir. Spanning a four-panel suite of paintings, which wrap around the central staircase, it measures 40m and over 100ft, making it our largest-ever painting commission.
At Soho House West Hollywood, the extensive collection is formed almost exclusively from local artists born, based or trained in Los Angeles to reflect the city’s creative culture. In 2023, it was refreshed entirely by Kate Bryan, Soho House’s Chief Art Director, and Art Collection Manager, Anakena Paddon, to celebrate 20 years of Soho House in North America.
This year, as part of our new-look interiors transformation, our House on Sunset Boulevard is unveiling a new custom commission with contemporary artist Eric Uhlir. Spanning a four-panel suite of paintings, which wrap around the central staircase, it measures 40m and over 100ft, making it our largest-ever painting commission.
Growing up in Southern California, Uhlir’s work straddles the line between figurative and abstract, often examining the Anthropocene through the lens of art history. ‘These works extend my ongoing exploration of how history, nature and popular culture intertwine,’ explains Uhlir. ‘I drew from the language of landscape painting – Capability Brown’s orchestrated gardens, Tiepolo’s theatrical skies, Courbet’s weight of realism – while layering in contemporary visual clues. My interest lies in cyclical time: how the past returns within the present, and how the natural world frames our human narratives.’
Often harnessing a bright colour palette – owing to his upbringing on the sunny, vibrant West Coast in the 1980s – Uhlir is renowned for blending pop culture references with his love of classical painting. His approach also explores the physical nature of paint, his works rich with texture and technique. ‘I work primarily in oil, layering glazes with impasto to create depth and luminosity. The process is cyclical: painting, scraping back, reworking until the surface feels alive. These paintings evolved over weeks, each pass building energy and resonance. The goal is for the surface to shift with light and time, always revealing something new, never fully settling.’
No stranger to large-scale works, Uhlir is at his most comfortable incorporating vast canvases to accommodate his complex, layered compositions. ‘From the outset, I thought about the dialogue between canvas and architecture,’ he continues. ‘Scale here is not just physical – it’s psychological. I wanted the paintings to hold the wall, to anchor the room, while leaving space for the life of the House. Sight lines and vantage points became essential: how the work unfolds as one moves through the space. Large paintings are immersive – they become environments as much as objects. It allowed me to push gesture into physicality, to create works that envelop the viewer. For me, scale is where painting transforms from picture into experience.’
Often harnessing a bright colour palette – owing to his upbringing on the sunny, vibrant West Coast in the 1980s – Uhlir is renowned for blending pop culture references with his love of classical painting. His approach also explores the physical nature of paint, his works rich with texture and technique. ‘I work primarily in oil, layering glazes with impasto to create depth and luminosity. The process is cyclical: painting, scraping back, reworking until the surface feels alive. These paintings evolved over weeks, each pass building energy and resonance. The goal is for the surface to shift with light and time, always revealing something new, never fully settling.’
No stranger to large-scale works, Uhlir is at his most comfortable incorporating vast canvases to accommodate his complex, layered compositions. ‘From the outset, I thought about the dialogue between canvas and architecture,’ he continues. ‘Scale here is not just physical – it’s psychological. I wanted the paintings to hold the wall, to anchor the room, while leaving space for the life of the House. Sight lines and vantage points became essential: how the work unfolds as one moves through the space. Large paintings are immersive – they become environments as much as objects. It allowed me to push gesture into physicality, to create works that envelop the viewer. For me, scale is where painting transforms from picture into experience.’
For Uhlir, it was key to consider each of the four paintings individually, as well as how they hang together as a set. ‘Each painting is self-contained, yet I treated them like variations within a symphony. Colour echoes across canvases, brushwork builds rhythmic continuity, motifs repeat in altered form. They function as a group without losing their independence; a constellation of images bound by shared energy.’
As a regular at the House, Uhlir was also informed by the space itself at the centre of LA’s vibrant creative community. ‘Soho House has its own atmosphere: intimate yet social. That duality shaped my choices of palette and rhythm. I wanted the paintings to resonate with the House’s ethos: to reward solitary contemplation, but also to sustain presence amid conversation and movement. The works were conceived as both backdrop and provocation.’
This isn’t the first time Soho House has worked with Uhlir. The artist also created a series of three frescoed paintings that sit together in the Lincoln Foyer of Ned’s Club Washington, D.C. But Uhlir believes his latest – and largest – commission is his most crowning achievement to date. ‘What sets them apart is their ambition,’ he says. ‘They are larger, more complex, and more narratively expansive. In many ways, they feel like a culmination of my practice to this point, but they point towards new directions, too.’
Explore Soho House West Hollywood and apply for membership
As a regular at the House, Uhlir was also informed by the space itself at the centre of LA’s vibrant creative community. ‘Soho House has its own atmosphere: intimate yet social. That duality shaped my choices of palette and rhythm. I wanted the paintings to resonate with the House’s ethos: to reward solitary contemplation, but also to sustain presence amid conversation and movement. The works were conceived as both backdrop and provocation.’
This isn’t the first time Soho House has worked with Uhlir. The artist also created a series of three frescoed paintings that sit together in the Lincoln Foyer of Ned’s Club Washington, D.C. But Uhlir believes his latest – and largest – commission is his most crowning achievement to date. ‘What sets them apart is their ambition,’ he says. ‘They are larger, more complex, and more narratively expansive. In many ways, they feel like a culmination of my practice to this point, but they point towards new directions, too.’
Explore Soho House West Hollywood and apply for membership