Eric Spoutz

Eric Ian Hornak-Spoutz (born August 3, 1983) is an American art dealer, and curator. He has owned and operated art galleries in Detroit, Michigan; Cape Coral and Palm Beach, Florida; and Los Angeles, California.

Early life and family Eric Ian Hornak-Spoutz was born on August 3, 1983, in Mount Clemens, Michigan, to Carl Steven Spoutz, a real estate developer, and Rosemary Hornak, a visual artist. He was named after his maternal uncle, Ian Hornak, a founding Hyperrealist and Photorealist artist.

Ian Hornak’s longtime partner was Julius Rosenthal Wolf, a casting director, theatrical agent, and art dealer who served as vice president of General Amusement Corporation and was previously associated with Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery in New York City.

Hornak-Spoutz’s parents divorced in 1993, after which he was raised by his mother, with significant involvement from his paternal grandparents and his uncle. He lived in Mount Clemens during the school year and spent the remainder of his time among family residences in East Hampton, Manhattan, and Palm Beach.

From 2007 to 2017, Hornak-Spoutz placed works by numerous artists into the permanent collections of major American institutions. These included the Smithsonian American Art Museum; the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, Archives of American Art; the Library of Congress; the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; the Detroit Institute of Arts; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University; and a range of other museums, universities, hospitals, and public collections.

Hornak-Spoutz also curated traveling museum exhibitions across the United States, including an exhibition at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., in 2013 for the second inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States, and sponsored by the Chair Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke.

During the City of Detroit bankruptcy, Hornak-Spoutz appeared as a media commentator for outlets including The Detroit News, where he discussed valuations of the Detroit Institute of Arts collection and other municipal artworks amid international debate regarding their potential sale.

Legal matters Hornak-Spoutz v. Kahn

In October 2024, Hornak-Spoutz filed a civil action against artist Scott Kahn in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Westchester, seeking $7,500,000 USD in damages. The complaint alleged a professional relationship dating to 2011, including exhibitions, museum acquisitions, and a proposed $40,000,000 to $60,000,000 USD retrospective exhibition at Phillips Asia in Hong Kong that was allegedly terminated shortly before opening.