Bill Viola is an OG video artist - a pioneer who pushed to make his vision mainstream.

Well, video art may not be mainstream, but at least it is ubiquitously accepted as a valid art form today, and Viola is one of the major players that made that a reality. I suppose this is how he has earned himself the nickname the “Rembrandt of the video age”. Besides video art, Viola has been know to wow his audiences with all sorts of trippy tech-y art that totally skews how we interact with our environment and challenges our basic senses and perception. It is hard not to pay attention to Viola’s art as it dissects those universal human topics such as birth, death, and the unfolding of consciousness through art that drowns the senses in a spectacular array of video, sound, and architecture.

Viola knew the instant he turned his first video camera on in 1970 that he would be doing that for the rest of his life. A pipe dream at the time, video cameras were still in their most primitive of states and video art was far from being an established field. For Viola, this just meant there were no rules to play by. The world was his oyster.

Viola may have known in 1970 that it was his destiny to become a video artist, but his vision was set into motion much earlier than that. Viola was only six years old when he had a vision that would inform his entire artistic career. Floating on a lake with his cousin, Viola soon found himself sinking to the bottom of a watery grave. Rather than freaking out like most, Viola opened his eyes to see what he considered the most beautiful image of life: and iridescent blue world filled with moving life. Viola has been on a mission to recreate this singular moment ever since.

Viola has been killing it for years. In 1980 he was awarded the U.S./Japan Creative Artist Fellowship allowing him to move to Japan and become immersed in what would soon become one of his greatest influences: Zen Buddhism. Exploring the human experience through the lens of structured religion is one of Viola’s signature moves. I guess this is why the Dalai Lama was down to be featured in one of his audio pieces. No big deal, obvi. As a child, Viola played the part of altar boy for his local church, but it wasn’t until these later years that religion began to permeate his life and work. Today, religion is seen as one of the centerpieces of his artistic oeuvre.

Viola has a partner in crime - a sidekick who gets notably less credit for the work, yet is integral to the success of his all his art. Her name is Kira Perov and she is responsible for all the production mumbo jumbo stuff. Besides being the driving force that helps make Viola’s vision a reality, she is also his wife! As he explained of Kira, “She's the brains behind the operation. I'm the dreamer.” As if Viola hitting a homerun with his art career wasn’t enough, apparently he also found the perfect woman for himself as well. Some people really do have it all.