Mark Abildgaard received a B.A. degree in Art from San Francisco State University in 1979 and a M.F.A. degree in Art from the University of Hawaii in 1984. In 2015, he was awarded an individual artists grant from the Leff-Davis Fund for Visual Artists of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation. He was the Susan Cooley Gilliom Artist in Residence and Teaching Program recipient for 2022. Abildgaard's sculptures have been included in the collections of the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York; the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and the Crocker Museum in Sacramento, California, as well as numerous private collections.