Rikka Anttonen (b. 1982) is a visual artist based in Helsinki, Finland. She holds an MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of the Arts Helsinki and an MA from the School of Arts, Design and Architecture at Aalto University. Her work has recently been exhibited at Kunsthalle Helsinki (Kesäsade), Kai Art Center, the Tallinn Applied Art Triennial, and in her solo exhibition Acorn Hunt at Forum Box, Helsinki. Forthcoming presentations include Bærum Kunsthall (Oslo), Galería Yusto/Giner (Marbella), the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (Helsinki), as well as a solo exhibition at Galleria Sinne and a public artwork for the City of Helsinki in 2026. She will also participate in MAJA, a hybrid exhibition by the collective Porin kulttuurisäätiö that will be shown in summer 2026 in both Helsinki and the Estonian city of Narva.

Her installations combine wooden and stone sculptures, creating an active dialogue with the space and at times merging with the surrounding architecture. Her practice is rooted in queer experience, exploring social norms, antiquity and transformation. She employs techniques such as mosaic and relief, and sometimes conceals surfaces beneath layers of paint, evoking the concept of queer opacity: a visible yet hard to define presence that reflects the experience of revealing only fragments of one’s identity.

Through her materials and techniques, Anttonen forges connections with antiquity and with Rome’s queer culture, showing how historically accepted diverse expressions of gender and sexuality remain relevant for queer people today. In doing so, she proposes a counter-narrative to the idea that these identities are purely modern phenomena.