Bill Viola

Bill Viola (born America, 1951) is a contemporary video artist. With a career spanning 35 years his significant contribution to the genre of video art is today widely acknowledged on the international stage. Bill Viola was born on January 25, 1951 and grew up in Queens, New York, and Westbury, New York. He attended P.S. 20 in Flushing, where he was Captain of the TV Squad, and went on to Syracuse University, where he studied in the Experimental Studios of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, including the Synapse experimental program, which evolved into HillTV. In 1973 he graduated from Syracuse with a Bachelor in Fine Arts. His first job on graduation was as a video technician at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse. From 1973 to 1980 he studied and performed with composer David Tudor in the new music group "Rainforest" (later called "Composers Inside Electronics"). From 1974-1976 Viola worked as technical director at Art/Tapes/22, a pioneering video studio in Florence, Italy... full article at wikipedia