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‘Transfigurations’
Jun 27 – Aug 17, 2008
Bill Viola, one of the leading figures in contemporary art, has been instrumental in establishing video as a vital art form. The artist’s video installations—total environments that envelop the viewer in image and sound—employ state-of-the-art technologies, distinguished by their precision and direct simplicity. Viola uses video as an avenue to self-knowledge; his work is informed by a deeply held set of spiritual values. Renowned for his manifestations of the human form undergoing various states of transformation and renewal, Viola’s work communicates to a wide audience, allowing viewers to experience the world directly, and in their own personal way.
For his second solo exhibition in Korea at Kukje Gallery since 2003, Viola presents “Transfigurations”, a series of works that grew out of the large-scale sound and video installation Ocean Without a Shore Viola created in 2007, for the Venice Biennale exploring the idea that the dead are never gone from the world of living. The term transfiguration is treated beyond the historical Christian context, as a total mind and body experience by which a person or an object is transformed from within. People in the video images cross over the tangible threshold of water and light, as they reveal their incarnate forms in the physical world and then vanish into the darkness of the other world.
The exhibition also includes Viola’s Five Angels for the Millennium (2001), a large-scale video and sound installation on a related theme. Water is again incorporated as a metaphor, the surface both reflecting the outer world and acting as a barrier to the other world to express profoundly human experiences.
Born in 1951 in New York, Bill Viola received his BFA in Experimental Studies from Syracuse University. In 1995 he represented the United States at the 46th Venice Biennale with an exhibition titled Buried Secrets. His work has been exhibited worldwide, including “Bill Viola: A 25-Year Survey” (1997) at the Whitney Museum of American Art, “Going Forth By Day” (2002) at the Deutsch Guggenheim Berlin, “Bill Viola: The Passions” (2003) at the J. Paul Getty Museum, and “Hatsu-Yume (First Dream)” at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2006). |
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Born in 1951, New York.
Lives and works in Long Beach, California.
■ EDUCATION
1973
BFA in Experimental Studies, College of Visual and Performing Arts, Syracuse University, New York.
■ ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS (Selected)
2008
“Bill Viola: Transfigurations,” Kukje Gallery, Seoul.
“Bill Viola: The Tristan Project” (installation exhibition), Art Gallery of New South Wales and St. Saviour’s Church, Sydney.
2007
“Bill Viola: Ocean Without a Shore,” installation in Chiesa di San Gallo, Collateral Event, 52nd Venice Biennale.
“Bill Viola,” The Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw.
“Bill Viola: Works from the Tristan Project,” James Cohan Gallery, New York.
“Bill Viola: Las Horas Invisibles,” Museo de Bellas Artes de Granada, Palacio de Carlos V. La Alhambra, Spain.
2006
“Bill Viola: Hatsu-Yume (First Dream),” Mori Art Museum, Tokyo.
“Bill Viola-Video”, 2006 Recipient of the NORD/LB Art Prize, Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany.
“LOVE/DEATH The Tristan Project,” Haunch of Venison (two venues), London.
2005
“Bill Viola,” James Cohan Gallery, New York.
Tristan und Isolde, premiere of fully staged Peter Sellars’ production, with four hour video, l’Opera National de Paris, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen.
“Bill Viola Visions,” ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark.
2004
“The Tristan Project,” premiere, four hour video for Peter Sellars’ new production, Tristan und Isolde (concert version), Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles Philharmonic, conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. New York premiere, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (2007), Los Angeles Philharmonic, conductor Esa Pekka Salonen; Gergiev Festival, De Doelen Concert Hall, Rotterdam, conductor Valery Gergiev; White Nights Festival (2008), Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, St Petersburg, conductor Valery Gergiev.
“Bill Viola: Temporality and Transcendence,” Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
2003
“Bill Viola: Five Angels for the Millennium,” Ruhrtriennale, Gasometer, Oberhausen, Germany.
“Bill Viola,” Kukje Gallery.
“Bill Viola: The Passions,” The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Travels to The National Gallery, London; Fundacion “la Caixa,” Madrid (2005); National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
2002
“Bill Viola: Going Forth By Day,” Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin.
2001
“Bill Viola: Five Angels for the Millennium,” Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London.
2000
“Bill Viola: The Greeting”, Festival d’Automne a Paris, Eglise Saint-Eustache.
“Bill Viola: New Work,” James Cohan Gallery, New York.
“The World of Appearances,” Helaba Main Tower, Frankfurt (permanent installation).
1997
“Bill Viola: A 25-Year Survey” organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Travels to Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art (1998); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art ; Art Institute of Chicago (1999-2000).
“Bill Viola: Fire, Water, Breath,” Guggenheim Museum (SoHo), New York.
1996
“Bill Viola: Trilogy: Fire, Water, Breath” Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpetriere, Festival d’Automne a Paris.
“Bill Viola: The Messenger,” Durham Cathedral, Visual Arts UK 1996, Durham, England. Travels to South London Gallery; Video Positiva-Moviola, Liverpool; The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh; Oriel Mostyn, Gwynedd, Wales; The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin (1997).
“Bill Viola: New Work,” Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia.
1995
“Buried Secrets,” United States Pavilion, 46th Venice Biennale, Travels to Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover; Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe (1996).
1994
“Bill Viola: Territorio do Invisivel/Site of the Unseen,” Centro Cultural/Banco do Brazil, Rio de Janeiro.
Deserts (A film created for the music composition Deserts by Edgard Varese), a collaboration with the Ensemble Modern, conductor Peter Eotvos, Wien Modern, Konzerthaus, Vienna, (premiere). Other performances: Konzerthaus, Karlsruhe (1995); Muffathalle, Munich; Palazzetto dello Sport, Venice; Hallein/Perner-Insel, Salzburg; Alte Oper, Frankfurt; Konzerthaus, Berlin; Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Royal Festival Hall, London (1996); Globe Arena, Stockholm; Auditorio RAI, Turin; Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Paris (performances with other orchestras continue to the present).
“Bill Viola: Stations,” American Center inaugural opening, Paris.
1992
“Bill Viola. Unseen Images,” Stadtische Kunsthalle Dusseldorf. Travels to: Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1993); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Musee Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Tel Aviv Museum of Art (1994).
“Bill Viola: Two Installations,” Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London.
“Bill Viola,” Donald Young Gallery, Seattle.
“Bill Viola: Nantes Triptych,” Chappelle de l'Oratoire, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, France.
1990
“Bill Viola: The Sleep of Reason,” Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Jouy-en-Josas, France.
1989
“Bill Viola,” Fukui Prefectural Museum of Art, Fukui City, Japan, part of The 3rd Fukui International Video Biennale.
1988
“Bill Viola: Survey of a Decade,” Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas.
1987
“Bill Viola: Installations and Videotapes,” The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
1985
“Bill Viola,” Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
“Summer 1985,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
1983
“Bill Viola,” ARC, Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
1979
“Projects: Bill Viola,” The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
1974
“Bill Viola: Video and Sound Installations,” The Kitchen Center, New York.
1973
“New Video Work,” Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York.
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