California-based printmaker and painter Gerrit Greve was born in Bandung, Indonesia in 1948 to Dutch national parents. As a child, his parents relocated to Zeist, Holland and then immigrated to the U.S., where they settled near Chicago. Greve studied at Elmhurst College, Chicago, where he earned his BA in 1970. The following year, he moved to Southern California and began exhibiting in both group and solo shows soon thereafter. 

Greve was featured in the Emmy award-winning PBS series "Artists in Residence." He was one of the founders of the Art for Healing program that began in 2003 at Scripps Memorial Hospital, and has since expanded to include several more hospitals. Greve's work was featured in Time International magazine's "The Power of Mozart" feature (January 16, 2006), and his painting of Luciano Pavarotti is featured on the opera singer's album "Verismo Arias." His painting "Northwest Territory" is featured in 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die (Rizzoli, 2007). He self-published books of his work, including Faces, The Boxes: Paintings by Gerrit Greve, and 101 Cats.

Greve died in Cardiff-By-the-Sea, California, in March of 2024.