Episode 29 - Veronica Riedel

I just got back from visiting my long time (Guatemala, Madrid, Miami) artist friend Veronica Riedel at her Mycelium Garden exhibit. She was showing how the world of nature, artificial intelligence, and art come together. Her exhibit is at idartlab, 676 NW 23rd St, Miami. I know Veronica and her mother Ana Westermann and Ana’s husband for several decades. We all met on one of our travel trips we took with Smart Tours.

Veronica is a screenwriter, director, producer and multimedia artist. Her second feature film Gallo Gallina has been awarded with Ibermedia coproduction grant and will be soon in production. Gallo Gallina has the support from the Guatemalan Government.

Veronica has dedicated her life to creating artwork about social justice, ecological awareness, and equality. She observes human behavior, weaving them into visual narratives. Creation is her life – a way of living that defines her very essence.

Books & Books will be debuting Veronica’s art book next Saturday. It’s a masterpiece.

I wanted to interview Veronica because she really observes everything around her, human behavior mostly.  She reinvents her conclusions creating stories, works of art, films, designs, moods, food, spaces, furniture, houses… you name it. She says her life without creation would be nothing. “It is a lifestyle, a way of being, It just is. There is never a dull moment in my life.”

Veronica’s works of art have been exhibited in museums and international art fairs and belong to important private and public collections in Guatemala, Latin America, Europe and the United States. 

In 2023, she published her 300-page book All The Worlds That Are In This One at the Pinta Art Fair in Miami and presented her immersive video installation at Miami International Fine Arts (MIFA). In 2024, Riedel continued exploring the use of mycelium in her art, exhibiting at La Mecha Contemporary Gallery in El Paso, Texas. Her work was also featured at the JUANNIO Latin American Art Auction and the Rozas-Botrán Gallery and Foundation in Guatemala. Additionally, she won the prestigious Karstica residency in Cañada del Hoyo, Spain for September 2024.  In parallel with her artistic work, Veronica has developed an important cinematographic career as director, screenwriter, and producer. Her fiction feature film, and Opera Prima, Capsules (2011), won many awards at important international film festivals. She also created, directed and produced the docuseries Strange Medicine (2013-2014) for Fusion TV and Univision.  She also recently wrote and directed an experimental short film “MY DARKNESS IS MY LIGHT”, which will be showcased at the Icaro National Film Festival in 2024.
 
She was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala. She went to the American School of Guatemala, coursed undergraduate studies at Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala City. She studied Photojournalism at the University of Columbia, South Carolina and Art and New Media at Anderson Ranch Art Center, Colorado.  She earned a B.F.A. in Communications, Film and Photography at the University of Miami, Florida, and Screenwriting at the University of California, Santa Monica.