Lydia Vairaktaraki is a visual artist born in Milwaukee, USA, in 1995. She began her studies at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, Netherlands and continued at the Athens School of Fine Arts, graduating from the Sculpture Department in 2022.

She has participated in group exhibitions at institutions including the Benaki Museum and Kastela Art Center. In 2022, for the sound recording of the work Opening , she presented her first solo exhibition in a space in Exarchia Athens. In 2024, she presented her second solo exhibition Introspection at the METS Art Center, Athens.

Alongside her visual arts practice, she has worked in the film and television industry on productions for Netflix, Disney, Apple TV+, and Cosmote TV, primarily in assistant director roles. Working in the film industry became a revelation within her artistic practice, marking a turning point that led her to pursue the creation of large-scale, interactive works. Through her involvement in highly demanding and ambitious productions, her practice expanded beyond the limitations of a small studio environment toward immersive works of much greater scale and complexity. This experience reinforced her belief that all forms of imagination can become materially possible.

Her work engages with social issues, moving between the individual and the collective perspective. Through participatory practices, she aims to create works that generate a direct emotional and psychological impact on the viewer, where the experience itself becomes an integral part of the artwork. Large-scale participatory installations are conceived and organized to address societal issues in a way that allows viewers to interpret the experience according to their own emotional and personal connection to the subject matter.