Barbara
Eder.

A life between cultures, forms and memories.

I am Barbara Eder, a visual artist based in Munich. My painting explores what we perceive, remember and carry within us, even when it cannot easily be put into words.

I was born in 1971 in Madras, now Chennai, India. My childhood and youth were shaped by different cultural impressions. Experiences in India opened my eyes to the diversity of ways of life, colours, forms and modes of expression. Moving between the familiar and the unfamiliar became an early experience that continues to inform my approach to art.

In Germany, I first completed a qualification focused on art and design. I then trained in cosmetics/theatrical make-up as well as media design. I learned how faces, surfaces, light and composition can evoke moods and tell stories. These experiences became part of the foundation of my later painting practice.

I have worked as an independent artist alongside other professional activities since 1997 and have devoted myself to art full-time since 2018. At the heart of my work lies the tension between figuration and abstraction. Faces, bodies and fragmented forms emerge, are layered over or disappear into the pictorial space. Layer by layer, paintings take shape in which memories, emotional states and inner images find their own expression.

I understand painting as an open-ended process. Layers of colour, overpainting, lines and textures continually transform the image. Not every trace is meant to be clearly legible. I am interested in allowing several perceptions to emerge at once, leaving space for viewers to make their own associations. Life, too, is constantly changing and opening up new paths.

My work has been presented at art fairs and exhibitions in Germany and internationally, including ART KARLSRUHE, ARTMUC and Discovery Art Fair Cologne, as well as gallery presentations in Madrid.

Today I live and work in Munich. Further exhibitions, the development of my work and my catalogue of works are documented on KLAREKUNST. Information about auctions and the art market can also be found on Artnet.