Roger Risberg was born in Gothenburg in 1956 and studied at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Konstfack, in Stockholm between 1979 and 1984, where Lars Hillersberg was among his teachers. He is best known for his powerful and emotionally charged paintings of figures and animals, executed in a direct, rough-hewn style that is sometimes reminiscent of graffiti and recalls the visual world of Keith Haring.

In the early 1980s, Risberg developed a highly personal and uncompromising artistic language in which themes such as love, togetherness, loneliness, and abandonment frequently reappeared. He achieved his major breakthrough in the late 1980s with expressive paintings in black and red, combining exhilaration and anguish through naively depicted, totemic animals that became recurring symbols of vulnerability and strength.

Roger Risberg has held several major solo exhibitions and is represented in collections including Moderna Museet, Nationalmuseum, Bonniers Konsthall, and the Gothenburg Museum of Art.