Viva La Vida: April 2011

Bill Viola was born January 25, 1951. He is an internationally recognized video artist with over 40 years experience in the art field. With the use of videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic musical performances, flat panel video pieces, and works for television. Viola has established himself as the leading artist figure in new media. He grew up in Queens and Westbury, New York and in 1973 graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor in Fine Arts Degree specifically Experimental Studios. After graduation he worked as a video technician at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse. And from 1974-1976, Viola served as technical director at Art/Tapes/22, which was a pioneering video studios located in Florence, Italy. While working there he was able to closely observe the works of Nam June Paik, Bruce Nauman, and Vito Acconci. During 1976-1983, Viola was the resident artist at WNET Thirteen Television Laboratory in New York. In 1977 he was invited to show some of his work at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. He and the cultural arts director Kira Perov later married and have been collaborating on work ever since. In 1983, he began teaching Advanced Video at the California Institute of the Arts, in Valencia, California. It was during this time that he created one of his best known works, The Greeting. Viola also worked as a Scholar in residence at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.in 1998. He was even elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002. Today, Viola resides in Long Beach, California were he has lived for 25 years with his wife and 2 children. His woor has been on display all over the world and in countless galleries.

Violas work likes to emphasize on human emotion and experiences. Like birth, death, and different levels of consciousness. Traumatic experiences in his life have inspired some of his work. Including his mothers death when he was a child, his near death drowning experience when he was young, which he described as "The most beautiful world I've ever seen in my life and without fear, peacefull"And his fathers death in 1999.