Eriko Tsogo

Eriko Tsogo

Mongolian-American multidisciplinary artist and cultural producer. Born in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; grew up in Budapest, Hungary during the fall of communism; moved to the United States in 1999 with her family, settling in Denver among metro Denver's large Mongolian community. DACA recipient.

Connection to Colin Ward

Eriko provided album art for BIEBER JERBOA (alphabets, 2010/Bandcamp upload 2013). In her own words: "I was honored to do the art for the Bieber Jerboa album based off of their song called 'Aah Real Monsters,' and translating the abstract notion of sound into a descriptive drawing became an interesting experience."

She was also part of a planned Mongolia film project with Colin Ward and Stephan Herrera. According to the Westword "Another 100 Colorado Creatives: Colin Ward" article (~2014/2015), Colin was planning to travel to Mongolia in June to film, compose, and score an original feature-length pseudo-documentary art film with Eriko and Stephan. It is unknown whether this trip occurred; Colin died in February 2018.

Update (2026-04-23): Eriko's own bio describes the feature-length Mongolia project as still in the pre-production stages, suggesting the original Colin-+-Stephan-+-Eriko collaboration was not realized as a finished feature before Colin's death. Eriko's first completed film, the animated short "Tears of the Sky" (2019), is autobiographical — described as "the director's journey back to her home country of Mongolia after twenty years of absence due to DACA restrictions." It premiered at the 2019 Colorado Dragon Film Festival and screened at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival (PAAFF) 2021. Colin's involvement, if any, in the source material that fed into "Tears of the Sky" is not documented; the description frames it as a personal/autobiographical work.

Artistic practice

Cross-disciplinary work spanning visual art, performance, social practice, and film. Her practice centers the immigrant journey, Mongolian cultural and religious histories, and esotericism. Her first animated short film "Tears of the Sky" premiered at the 2019 Colorado Dragon Film Festival.

Meow Wolf Convergence Station

Eriko (under the collective name Betart Collective with her family) created "Mongovoo Temple" for Meow Wolf Convergence Station (Denver, opened September 17, 2021) — a multisensory room drawing from Mongolian cultural, religious, and political histories. This places her at the same venue that houses the Aquakota installation in tribute to Colin Ward.

Other recognition

• Westword Colorado Creative honoree: Eriko Tsogo Honored as a Colorado Creative
• Creative director, Mongolian Culture and Heritage Center of Colorado
• Founder, International Yurt Art Residency Program (2018), an artist-in-residence exchange between Colorado and Mongolia
• Selected for "Contemporary Mongolian Art Biennial: Innovating Tradition" at The World Bank, Washington DC

## Sources - 5280 Magazine — "Eriko Tsogo and Her Family Bring Mongolia to Meow Wolf" - CPR — "Artist Eriko Tsogo Grapples With Identity, Displacement And DACA" - Westword — "Eriko Tsogo Honored as a Colorado Creative" - Westword — "Another 100 Colorado Creatives: Colin Ward" - alphabets Bandcamp — BIEBER JERBOA - Eriko Tsogo — bio (own site) — "currently working on completing her first international feature documentary animation film project taking place between Colorado and Mongolia, and is in the pre-production stages" - PAAFF 2021 — Tears of the Sky — synopsis confirms autobiographical framing