Edite Grinberga (1965) was born in Riga, Latvia. She was a student at Janis Rozentals Riga Art School from 1975 until 1982 and studied painting and textile design at the State Academy of Art in Riga as of 1983Since 1990 she has lived and worked in Berlin. In 2011 she spent some time at the Santa Fe Art Institute in New Mexico, USA, in connection with a scholarship.
Light and shadow in their ever-changing dialectic are the core theme of Grinberga’s paintings. In her depictions of interiors and still life motifs, Edite Grinberga conjures up quiet moments recounting various trips and the past with with the aid of a painting that search light through the shadows. The paintings suggest a human presence only metaphorically, but the persons outside the picture-space and the events occurring before and after the depicted moment are the real protagonists of her work. It is through the medium of light that the flow of time is visualized.
The manner in which light seems to fall accidentally is part of her meticulously planned composition. Everyday objects, such as a chair, a book or a piece of clothing, are showcased completely in line with the tradition of Dutch 17th century paintings but nevertheless in a contemporary fashion. The objects shown in an imaginary space are pretexts for a tale, they stimulate us the memory of our experiences, our dreamlike fantasies.