Bill Viola
(New York 1951) si interessa inizialmente alla musica elettronica, alla Performance Art e al film sperimentale. Oggi è tra i più innovativi e riconosciuti artisti nell'uso delle tecnologie elettroniche, con opere che ci consegnano attraverso il tempo della meditazione i temi fondamentali del vivere e dell'attualità.

Career

Captain of the "TV Squad," 5th grade, P.S. 20, Queens, New York
Independent artist since 1973
Artist-in-residence, WNET Thirteen Television Laboratory, New York, 1976-83
Lived in Japan on cultural exchange fellowship. Studied with Zen priest/painter Daien Tanaka.
Artist-in-residence at Sony Corporation's Atsugi Laboratories, 1980-81
Instructor, Advanced Video, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California, 1983
Represented the United States at the 46th Venice Biennale in the US Pavilion, 1995
Getty Scholar-in-residence at The Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities, Los Angeles, 1998.
Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences, United States, 2000.

Awards
1984 Polaroid Video Art Award for outstanding achievement, United States
1987 Maya Deren Award, American Film Institute, United States
1989 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award, United States
1993 Skowhegan Medal (Video/Installation), United States

Honorary degrees
1995 Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, Syracuse University, New York
1997 Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
1998 Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California
1999 Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts
2000 Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California
Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, University of Sunderland, England

Selected one-person exhibitions
1973 "New Video Work," Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
1974 "Bill Viola: Video and Sound Installations," The Kitchen Center, New York
1979 "Projects: Bill Viola," The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1983 "Bill Viola," ARC, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
1985 "Summer 1985," Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
"Bill Viola," Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
1987 "Bill Viola: Installations and Videotapes," The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1988 "Bill Viola: Survey of a Decade," Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas
1989 "Bill Viola," Fukui Prefectural Museum of Art, Fukui City, Japan, part of The 3rd Fukui International Video Biennale.
1990 "Bill Viola: The Sleep of Reason," Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Jouy-en-Josas, France
1992 "Bill Viola: Nantes Triptych," Chappelle de l'Oratoire, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, France
"Bill Viola," Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, Washington (five installations)
Splendente, Castello di Volpaia
"Bill Viola: Two Installations," Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London, England
"Bill Viola. Unseen Images," Stadtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany. Travels to: Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (1993); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (1993); Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland (1993); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England (1993), Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel (1994)