Roger Risberg (1956–2011) was born in Gothenburg and studied at Konstfack in Stockholm from 1979 to 1984. Among his teachers was the satirical artist Lars Hillersberg, who likened Risberg's art to that of the American artist Keith Haring. Risberg's art is primitive, insightful, and known for its powerful interpretations of both people and animals.
He achieved his breakthrough with a number of solo exhibitions in the late 1980s. Risberg is represented in collections including the Nationalmuseum, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Bonniers Konsthall, and Moderna Museet.
Roger Risberg passed away in 2011, at the age of only 55, after a prolonged illness.
"In the early 1980s, when the 'Young Wild Ones' were on the scene, Roger Risberg emerged. He turned out to be the only one in Sweden who could claim the epithet. His paintings were strong and direct. And without theoretical restraint. He initially liked to depict himself as different animals, such as an eagle. Alone, exposed. A strong theme was love, togetherness, and abandonment." Thomas Millroth (Swedish art historian, critic, art curator, and author) in his book about Roger Risberg 2011."
Roger Risberg - is an absurdist and berserker, one of the genuinely odd outliers on the fringe of the Swedish art scene. A primitive force that in clarity and confusion seeks the child and the barbarian beneath our increasingly sophisticated veneer. His paintings are like roughly hewn, gallows-humorous graffiti - a kind of magical or brutally clear signs of bewilderment, loneliness, and vulnerability in our time." (Folke Edwards (Swedish museum curator, art critic, and author, "Northern Lights 92", Gothenburg Art Hall 1992)
