Erkan Özgen (b. 1971, Mardin) graduated from the Painting Department of Çukurova University in 2000.
He works on video-based installations and has participated in group exhibitions in Turkey and abroad. In 2003 he curated the Eyes Contact exhibition at Diyarbakir Arts Center. In 2005 Özgen participated in the International Artists Studio Program at Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art in Malmö, Sweden. In the same year, he was awarded “Prix Meuly” at Kunstmuseum Thun in Switzerland. In 2008 he participated in the Can Xalant exchange programme at the Centre for Creating and Contemporary Thought in Mataró, Barcelona and in the PM/HIAP Safe Haven Helsinki residence programme in Suomenlinna in 2016. He was awarded the “Polarized! Vision is War/Peace” prize for his film Wonderland. Between 2016 and 2017 he curated the collection In-Between Worlds. Kurdish Contemporary Artists in the name of Luciano Benetton for Imago Mundi Kurdish Contemporary Artists. In 2018 he had his first solo exhibition in Europe at the Fundació Antoni Tàpies in Barcelona produced by the Han Nefkens Foundation. The Monography Giving Voices has been edited by Hilde Teerlinck and published by Sternberg Press, Berlin.
Özgen’s works has been presented in several museums, art institutions and biennales worldwide including Tate Modern, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Pinakothek der Moderne, Seoul Museum of Art, Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, Manifesta Palermo, amongst others. He has also participated in workshops in Beirut, Damascus, Diyarbakır, Enschede, Khartoum and Taipei. Özgen has given lectures on contemporary art in Turkey and abroad and has also worked as an activist in support of various ecological initiatives. He is one of the founders of Loading Independent Art Space established in Diyarbakir in 2017. He was member of the advisory board of Istanbul Biennial Production and Research Programme 2018-2019. In 2024 he participated in the conference “Children’s drawings as evidence” organised by LUMA and the Center for Human Rights and the Arts, Bard College; supported by the Open Society University Network and Luma Westbau, Zurich.