Mark Erickson was born in Southern California and completed his education in California, Germany and Italy. He completed his art education at the Academy of Art College and the Art Institute in San Francisco. Erickson has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New Orleans. He has collectors in Germany, France, Japan, Italy and across the United States

Erickson concerns himself with transcending the picture plane but in his newest series plays with both flattening the plane and creating abstracted objects which float above it. This newest series was inspired by the Studio paintings of Matisse done in Collioure Matisse became fascinated with the strong verticals and horizontals caused by the geometric pattern of light from the open balcony door of his studio. He began to use and exaggerate the effect, creating paintings in which composition was more important than content. The exaggerated spaces in the Erickson paintings give the works a magnificent presence and power.