BILL VIOLA
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Bill Viola (b.1951) is internationally recognized as one of the premiere artists working in the medium of video. For over 35 years he has created videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances, and works for television broadcast. Viola's video installations—total environments that envelop the viewer in image and sound—employ state-of-the-art technologies that are distinguished by their precision and direct simplicity. His single channel videotapes have been broadcast and presented cinematically around the world. Viola lives and works in Long Beach, CA with his wife and long time collaborator, Kira Perov, and their two sons.
Since the early 1970's, Viola has used video to explore the phenomena of sense perception as an avenue to self-knowledge. Clearly at odds with the cynicism of his age, his works focus on universal human experiences – birth, death, the unfolding of consciousness – and have roots in both Eastern and Western art, as well as Islamic Sufism, Christian mysticism, and Zen Buddhism. Viola's achievement is that of an artist who began in a field unbounded by tradition and dogma, and who arrived, twenty-five years later, deeply enmeshed in a series of intersecting spiritual traditions, from ancient to contemporary. He has been instrumental in the establishment of video as vital form of contemporary art, and in so doing has helped to expand its scope both in terms of technology, content and historical reach.
Born in New York in 1951, Viola received his BFA from Syracuse University (1973). He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Syracuse University in 1995, as well as from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1997; the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California, 1998, and Sunderland University, Sunderland, England, 2000. In 1989 Viola received a five-year fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Other awards include fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation (1982), and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1985). In 1993 he received the first Medienkunstpreis presented jointly by Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, and Siemens Kulturprogramm, in Germany.
In 1995 he was selected to represent the United States at the 46th Venice Biennale with an exhibition titled Buried Secrets. His 1994 videofilm Déserts, created to accompany the music composition of the same name by Edgard Varèse, received its American premier at the Hollywood Bowl in August 1999 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. In 1997 the Whitney Museum of American Art organized Bill Viola: A 25-Year Survey Exhibition that toured the United States and Europe from 1997-2000. Venues included Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California (1997); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1998); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1998); Museum für Moderne Kunst, and Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany (1999); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California (1999); and The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (1999-2000). In 2002, he completed his most ambitious project, Going Forth By Day, a five part projected digital "fresco" cycle in High Definition video. His work was recently seen at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in an exhibition titled Bill Viola: The Passions, which traveled to the National Gallery, London, UK, October 22, 2003 – January 4, 2004, and Pinakotheks of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich, Germany in the Spring 2004. In 2006, he was awarded the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts on behalf of the Council for the Arts at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
In 1998 Viola was a Scholar-in-Residence at the Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and Humanities at the Getty Center, Los Angeles. He works at his studio in Long Beach, California, where he lives with his wife and manager Kira Perov, and their two children.
KIRA PEROV
Kira Perov is executive director of Bill Viola Studio. She has worked closely with Bill Viola, her husband and partner since 1978, managing, guiding and assisting with the production of all of his videotapes and installations. With her knowledge of photography and video, she has also documented their working process on location and in the studio and amassed a large archive of images from their experiences together. The finished works have also been extensively documented, as objects as well as in digital form. She has worked on the cutting edge with printers to translate the moving images of video onto paper in stills and frame grabs, encouraging experimentation of printing techniques. She edits all Bill Viola publications, working closely with curators and designers. Perov also organizes and coordinates exhibitions of the work worldwide.
Before meeting Viola, Kira Perov was director of cultural activities at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, curating exhibitions and producing concerts. Later, at the Long Beach Museum of Art in California, Perov compiled a ten-year history of video art exhibitions and documented the video collection at the museum. Her photographs, including those documenting Viola's work, have been widely published.
CAREER
• Captain of the "TV Squad," 5th grade, P.S. 20, Queens, New York, 1960
• Independent artist since 1973
• Artist-in-residence, WNET Thirteen Television Laboratory, New York, 1976-81
• Lived in Japan on cultural exchange fellowship. Studied with Zen priest/painter Daien Tanaka, 1980
• 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, USA
• 1987 Maya Deren Award, American Film Institute, USA
• 1989 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award, USA
• 1993 Skowhegan Medal (Video Installation), USA
• 2003 Cultural Leadership Award, American Federal of Arts, USA
• 2006 NORD/LB Art Prize, Bremen, Germany
HONORARY DEGREES
• 1995 Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, Syracuse University, New York, USA
• 1997 Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA
• 1998 Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California, USA
• 1999 Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
• 2000 Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California, USA
• 2000 Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, University of Sunderland, Sunderland, England
• 2004 Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, Royal College of Art, London, England
• 2005 Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois, USA
• 2006 Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California, USA
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
• 1985 "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
• 1992 "Bill Viola," Donald Young Gallery, Seattle, Washington (five installations)
• 1992 "Bill Viola: Two Installations," Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London, England
• 1992 "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)
• 1994 "Bill Viola: Stations," American Center inaugural opening, Paris, France
• 1994 "Bill Viola: Território do Invisível/Site of the Unseen," Centro Cultural/Banco do Brazil, Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil
• 1995 "Buried Secrets," United States Pavilion, 46th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy. Travels to Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany (1995); Arizona State University Art Museum (1996)
• 1996 "Bill Viola: New Work," Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia (installation)
• 1996 "Bill Viola: The Messenger," Durham Cathedral, Visual Arts UK 1996, Durham, England. Travels to South London Gallery, London, England (1996); Video Positiva-Moviola, Liverpool, England; The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland; Oriel Mostyn, Gwynedd, Wales; The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland (1997)
• 1997 "Bill Viola: Fire, Water, Breath," Guggenheim Museum (SoHo), New York
• 1997 "Bill Viola: A 25-Year Survey" organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art (catalogue). Travels to Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1998); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1998) (catalogue); Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany (1999); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California (1999); Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (1999-2000)
• 2000 "The World of Appearances," Helaba Main Tower, Frankfurt, Germany (permanent installation)
• 2000 "Bill Viola: New Work," James Cohan Gallery, New York
• 2001 "Bill Viola: Five Angels for the Millennium," Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London
• 2002 "Bill Viola: Going Forth By Day," Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin
• 2003 "Bill Viola: The Passions," Getty Museum, Los Angeles
• 2003 "Bill Viola," Kukje Gallery, Seoul
• 2003 "Bill Viola: Five Angels for the Millennium," Ruhrtriennale, Gasometer, Oberhausen, Germany
• 2003 "Bill Viola: The Passions," National Gallery, London
• 2004 "Bill Viola: Temporality and Transcendence," Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain
• 2005 "Bill Viola: The Passions," Fundación "la Caixa," Madrid, Spain
• 2005 "Bill Viola Visions," ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark
• 2005 "Bill Viola," James Cohan Gallery, New York, USA
• 2005 "Tristan und Isolde," fully staged opera premiere at the Opéra National de Paris, France
• 2006 "Bill Viola – Video", 2006 Recipient of the NORD/LB Art Prize, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany
• 2006 "LOVE/DEATH The Tristan Project," Haunch of Venison (two venues), London, UK
• 2007 "Bill Viola, Works from the Tristan Project," James Cohan Gallery, New York
• 2007 "Bill Viola," Galeria Zacheta, Warsaw, Poland