Witold Riedel (1969-) is a Polish born, German multidisciplinary artist living in Lisbon. His practice explores the interconnectedness of everything. He works across drawing, photography and ceramics. His art is a meditation on the origins of existence, linking ancient rituals and the contemporary by examining flows of energy and matter between humans, nature, and the cosmically divine.
Riedel selects personally significant materials, such as inks made from pollution, clays from specific sites and photography as document and data. All to emphasise process, ritual, and transformation. His work aims to dissolve boundaries between material and spirit, self and world, technology and nature. Riedel invites the viewer to consider their own place in existence’s unfolding narrative: from observing the journey of particles to documenting, reframing, and at times digitally reimagining the world using thousands of his photographs.
Before fully dedicating himself to fine art, Riedel spent more than three decades working in design and large scale global marketing. As Worldwide Creative Director for Siemens at Ogilvy in New York, and co-founder of the global agency Tea & Water Ltd. in London, he developed decentralised storytelling for those who want a better world; wherever they live and regardless of who they are. That same belief in deep emotional significance of every living thing and of our actions for the planet now also shapes his art practice. Riedel is fascinated by how context changes us but also how ancient practices could possibly save us.
Riedel’s work has been exhibited internationally by galleries, museums and institutions. His recent exhibitions include Star Resonance (Lisbon, 2025), Particle Memory (Proposition Studios, London, 2024), Ursprünge (Heussenstamm Stiftung, Frankfurt, 2024), and CICA New Media Art (South Korea, 2024), Ankommen (Haus der Stadtgeschichte Museum, Offenbach 2023). He is the winner of the Arte Laguna Prize for Painting (2020 - 2021) as well as the recipient of the Art Prize Diana (Offenbach, 2022). His work can be found in collections around the world.
All interconnected. All in balance. All bound to change.
Written at Exmouth House, London, October 2020,
edited at Wilhelmsplatz in Offenbach am Main, June 2023
edited again in Rua Pres. Arriaga, Lisbon, September 2024
current version Rua dos Quarteis, Ajuda, Lisbon, September 2025
If you are looking for an additional statement…
We are experiencing the shockwaves of historic events both ancient, recent and current. Be it from the planetary transformation, humanity’s emergence, the industrial revolution, wars, the artificial intelligence revolution, the climate catastrophe.
I use pollution particles, aged inks, flames, clay, data and light to create work that lets me find patterns within me and in whatever creates us.
My work lets the viewer see themselves in the context of this massive, ongoing transformation. This ever repeating journey will continue long after we have all turned into dust and beyond.
But while we are here, we might as well realize that we are not as special as some would like us to be. We are humbly part of a larger, complex, beautiful ecosystem that could do very well without us, and eventually will.
I collect pieces of information, memories of long gone systems, organisms, other unexpected materials. I nurture them into my art. I grow patterns and I help particles become something new or something that they might want to be. My art is not here to please anyone. It has to be created out of a larger creative force that’s beyond me.
All interconnected. All in balance. All bound to change.
Written in Offenbach. February and June of 2023
1969 * Świętochłowice, Poland
Exhibitions
2026 “R_Evolution” Swan Hill Studios, Shrewsbury, UK (Solo)
2025 “Vessels” OUR SAKE CLUB Berlin, Germany (Solo)
2025 “Studio 74” MOVART Gallery for Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal (Group)
2025 “ARTE LAGUNA PRIZE SHANGHAI” EKA-Tianwu Pudong, Shanghai, PRC (Group)
2025 “Star Resonance” OUR GALLERY, Lisbon, Portugal (Solo)
2024 “Particle Memory” Proposition Studios Gallery, London, UK (Solo)
2024 “Ursprünge”, Heussenstamm Stiftung, Frankfurt, Germany (Solo)
2024 “Perspectives” CICA Museum Seoul, South Korea (Group)
2023 “Ankommen” Museum Haus Der Stadtgeschichte, Offenbach, Germany (Solo)
2022 “Offen, Alles, Zusammen” Schlosskirche Rumpenheim, Germany (Solo)
2021 “To Get Her A Part, Together Apart”, Hampstead School of Art, London, UK (Solo)
2021 “Arte Laguna Prize Exhibition” Venice, Italy (Group)
2012 “Street Signs” Rito Gallery, Shanghai, PR China (Group)
2004 “Two Steps Back, 55DSL” New York, Milan, Tokyo, London (Group)
Teaching and Speaking Experience
2024 Self-fashioning in interior spaces, Seminar at the Jindal Global University, India
2021 - 2023 seminars for the internship programme at the Centre for Historic Houses in collaboration with the University of Oxford, UK
2021 Guest lecture, AI Drawing, Hampstead School of Art, London UK
2020 Lectures on Storytelling, UHubs, London, UK
2009 2014 Global Storytelling lecture series, Beijing, CN and NYC, USA
2001 Guest critiques, Parsons, New York, USA
1999 Guest critiques, School of Visual Arts, New York, USA
1998 - 2001 Mentor with the New York Board of Education, USA
1993 - 1995 Broadcast Animation Teacher, SWF, Baden-Baden, Germany
Publicatons and Press
2025 Interiew with Polo de Marco Magazine, Monaco
2025 Interview, Lisbon Design Week, Monocle Radio, UK
2024 Ray Triennial Summary, Monopol Magazin, Germany
2023 Interviews in Offenbacher Post, Offenbach, Germany
2021 Interview with Witold Riedel, TaTchers Art, Italy
2021 Art Talk with Witold Riedel, Carolina Conforti, Switzerland, Italy
2021 Portfolio, Witold Riedel, Costa Smeralda, Magazine, Italy
2012 Picture Professional, Witold Riedel, Photography feature, USA
2008 The Annual, The Morning News, New York, USA
2008 Subway Drawings, Gothamist, New York, USA
2007 1000 Journals Project by Someguy and Kevin Kelley, USA
2005 several articles and features at The Morning News Magazine, USA
2004 Two Steps Back, Exhibition Catalogue, Italy
1996 Techno Style, Markus Weisbeck, Germany
1993 It’s your time, Interactive Drawing Book, TRUST, Germany