Erik Hougen was born in 1982, and graduated from Pratt Institute with his MFA in 2008.  Hougen was recently a resident with the Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) program at the Bronx Museum, and a SIP Fellow at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in New York City.  He has exhibited with Bronx Museum, the International Print Center of New York, Kunsthalle Galapagos in Brooklyn, and at Vaughn Massey Projects in New York City.

He will also be included as a finalist for the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, opening at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. in March 2013. 

Currently, Hougen is the artist in residence at Kunsthalle Galapagos in Brooklyn, NY. Hougen is also a Master Printer and Intaglio instructor at the Lower East Side Printshop in New York City, and a visiting Graduate Printmaking Professor at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY.