ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Bruce Erikson started college at the age of twenty three after playing in a rock band and working five years driving truck, working on a paving crew and as a straightener setup mechanic in a steel mill with his father. He graduated magna cum laude from the University Honor's Program with a BFA degree in Drawing and with minors in Art History and Classical Guitar performance from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 1996. While at Edinboro he studied at the Illustration Academy in Kansas City, MO and worked doing magazine and trial illustration.

In 1996 he took a year off and worked in a morgue before enrolling at Indiana University- Bloomington where he pursued an MFA degree in Painting. While at Indiana University, he received a fellowship to study in Florence, Italy.

Since graduation he has taught at numerous universities including Kendall College of Art and Design, Grand Rapids, MI; University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, IL; and Washington University in St. Louis, MO where he was the drawing coordinator of the foundation program and taught at Santa Reparata in Florence, Italy. Currently he is a visiting assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA where he teaches anatomy, painting and drawing.

He has had numerous solo and juried exhibitions including Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI; Penn State University- Altoona, PA; William Jewel College, Liberty, MO; Ohio Northern University, Ada, OH; Paols Verdes Art Center, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA; Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA; Brad Cooper Gallery, Tampa, FL; Fraser Gallery, Washington, D.C. and Period Gallery in Lincoln, NE.