Rikke Lydeking

Meet Rikke Lydeking

A Scandinavian artist blending paintings, comics, and murals into vibrant stories.

Over the years, Rikke Lydeking has painted murals that bring walls to life and crafted illustrations that tell stories.

Rikke Lydeking is a Danish visual artist whose work connects geological time, human conflict, and emotional experience, often using stone as both material reference and metaphor. Working across muralism and studio painting, she creates figurative works that balance psychological depth with visual clarity in public space.

Trained in traditional techniques, she combines craftsmanship and realism with a contemporary sensibility. Research is central to her process. Each project begins with contextual and visual investigation, as she understands the surface—whether wall or canvas—as a site for storytelling.

Her work explores themes of grief, power, isolation, and responsibility. In her series Cairns and Erosion, stone interrupts violence or merges with the human body, linking the slowness of geological time with contemporary personal and societal conflict

CV

2026
Participates in Copenhagen Comics
Exhibits paintings at Ved Diget, Kastrup, Denmark

2025
Exhibits the comic Fossil Girl at Byens Hus, Hellerup, Denmark
Publishes Chapter 2 of Fossil Girl
Selected for the exhibition Hverdag in connection with Mental Talk
Participates in the Street Art Festival, Vejle, Denmark
Group exhibition, De Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

2024
Published in Circle Quarterly Art Review

2023
Virtual group exhibition Global Horizons, Artio Gallery
Participates in London Art Biennale
Recipient of the Bleur Residency, London
Participates in the global exhibition Art@Climate2030, Gothenburg, Sweden

2022
President’s Scholar Award, New York Academy of Art
Accepted into the MFA Program, New York Academy of Art
Illustrator of the children’s book Ellen’s Mother Has Crossed Eyes

2021–2026
Teaching drawing, painting, and digital drawing

2020
Creates the comic Fossil Girl

2019
Group exhibition, Spakler Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Studies classical techniques, Paris Academy of Art, France

2018
Interview with National Geographic on artistic practice
Mural, 3F Headquarters, Copenhagen, Denmark
Mural commission, Lundbeck, Denmark

2017
Group exhibition, Carlsberg Byens Galleri & Kunstsalon, Copenhagen, Denmark
Studies, Barcelona Academy of Art, Spain

2016
Mural, Temple Bar, Copenhagen, Denmark
Solo exhibition, Mellemrummet, Copenhagen, Denmark

2015
Mural commission, Copenhagen Metro, Sønder Boulevard, Copenhagen, Denmark
Scenic painting for Cirque du Soleil, Antalya, Turkey

2014
Mural, Temple Bar, Copenhagen, Denmark

2013
Mural, Studenterhuset, Copenhagen, Denmark

Education

2019
Paris Academy of Art, Classical Painting Techniques

2017
Barcelona Academy of Art

2011–2013
MA, American Studies, Copenhagen Business School

2008–2011
BA, English, University of Copenhagen / Columbia University

2006–2008
BA Studies, Art History, University of Copenhagen

Professional Experience

2009–2014
David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen