Bill Viola home
Long Beach, California
Bill Viola (b.1951) is internationally recognized as one of today’s leading artists.
He has been instrumental in the establishment of video as a vital form of contemporary art, and in so doing has helped to greatly expand its scope in terms of technology, content, and historical reach. For over 35 years he has created videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances, flat panel video pieces, 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 and are distinguished by their precision and direct simplicity. Viola uses video to explore the phenomena of sense perception as an avenue to self-knowledge. 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 spiritual traditions.