Artist Biography

Maria Veronica Leon Veintemilla, Exhibitor Artist, representative of Ecuador at the 56 International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia.

María Verónica León Veintemilla is a pluri-disciplinary artist born in 1971 in Guayaquil, Ecuador. From 1998 to 2013 she lived and worked in Paris, where she became the first contemporary female artist from Ecuador in exhibiting in a museum in Paris, Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux Arts de Paris (2008), she was invited also for a solo exhibition at the Galliera Museum (2006) and selected by the Department of Cultural Affairs of Paris to be part of the “Nuit Blanche”(2004). She has been part of Havana Biennial (1997), the 52nd and 56th International Art Exhibition-La Biennale di Venezia (in 2007 at the Latinamerican Pavilion (IILA), and today as the official representative of Ecuador in its first Independant National Pavilion); Art Brussels (2012); Thetis (2010); Guanzhou International Art Fair (2008).

In 2014 she set up in Dubai where she works now and became the first artist from Latin America represented by a gallery from the Emirates, Cube Arts Gallery, D.I.F.C. Dubai (2014); her first solo show in this gallery was the first solo show of an artist from Latin America in the Emirates. As a multidisciplinary artist she works with a variety of techniques: drawing, painting, printmaking, video art, video installation, video-poetry, digital books, performance and photography. Her life and avant-garde work make her a leading figure in the international contemporary art scene.

From her early years María Verónica has shown her extraordinary talent in drawing, painting, portraiture and self-portraiture. She made portraits of prominent figures like Bjork, Isabelle Adjani, Pina Bausch, Dominique Mercy, Julie Stanzak, Helena Pikon, Placido Domingo, Bill Clinton and diverse Ecuadorian, Latin American and European personalities. In Ecuador she worked with “La Galeria” in Quito (1997) and Madeleine Hollaender in Guayaquil (1995-1997). In 1996Guayasamin invited her to colaborate with him in murals paintings for “La Capilla del Hombre” in Quito. She attended the School of Fine Arts, Central University in Quito, Painting and Printing specialization , where she was also Dean Assistant of Printing Department.