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The Art World in Focus
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BILL VIOLA

BILL VIOLA

b. 1951, United States
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Bill Viola Biography

Bill Viola was born in New York in 1951 and graduated from Syracuse University in 1973. He represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1995 with an exhibition titled Buried Secrets. Other key solo exhibitions include Bill Viola: A 25-Year Survey at The Whitney Museum of American Art (1997); The Passions at the J. Paul Getty Museum (2003); Hatsu-Yume (First Dream) at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo in
2006; Bill Viola: Visioni interiori at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni (2008); and Bill Viola, Grand Palais, Paris (2014). He met Australian-born Kira Perov in 1977 who became Viola’s partner and collaborator.

His background reveals a great deal about his values and emphasis on transformational themes. A student of technology, art, and philosophy, he emerged out of the Fluxus-inspired generation that produced avant-garde innovators including David Tudor and Nam June Paik. Working with both artists early in his career, Viola quickly found his own voice by using technology to create works and adopting the mechanics of the recording process to explore archetypal themes of spiritual and psychological passage. In evoking art historical themes through the modern medium of video, Viola discovered an entirely new genre that has made a momentous contribution to art history.

Courtesy Kukje Gallery

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Bill Viola contemporary artist
Bill Viola Pricing / Available Works
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Recently Exhibited

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Contemporary art exhibition Bill Viola Moving Stillness at Kukje Gallery Seoul South Korea
Bill Viola Moving Stillness Kukje Gallery 3 December 2024–26 January 2025
Seoul
Contemporary art exhibition Bill Viola Bill Viola at Kukje Gallery Seoul South Korea
Bill Viola Kukje Gallery 5 March–3 May 2015
Seoul

Representative Artworks

Bill Viola, Observance (2002). Digital tape (betacam) shown as single-channel digital video. Courtesy Art Gallery of New South Wales. Photo: Kira Pervov. Copyright Bill Viola Studio.
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Bill Viola, The Greeting (1995). Video/sound installation
10:22 minutes.
Performers: Angela Black, Suzanne Peters, Bonnie Snyder.
Courtesy Bill Viola Studio.
© Bill Viola.
Photo: Kira Perov.
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Bill Viola, Inverted Birth (2014). Video/sound installation. Colour High-Definition video projection on screen mounted on wall in dark room. Projected image. 5 x 2.81 m, 8:22 minutes. Performer: Norman Scott. Courtesy Bill Viola Studio.
© Bill Viola.
Photo: Kira Perov.
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Exhibition view: We Love Video This Summer, Pace Gallery, Beijing (26 July–5 September 2014). Courtesy Pace Gallery. 
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Represented By

Kukje Gallery contemporary art gallery in Seoul South Korea
Kukje Gallery Seoul +1 location Follow +

Bill Viola in Ocula Magazine

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News Juliana Engberg Catalogues Catastrophes at Auckland Art Gallery Sam Gaskin Pandemic misery finds company in artworks responding to the Fukushima disaster, the Christchurch earthquake, and other calamities stretching back 3.2 billion years.
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