Presenters

Artist

Bill Shannon was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1970. In 1975 he moved to Pittsburgh, PA where he spent the remainder of his childhood and adolescence. In 1992 Shannon attended the The Art Institute of Chicago, earning a BFA in 1995. In 1996 Shannon moved to NYC and immersed himself in the art, dance and skate cultures of Brooklyn and Manhattan while expanding his performance work to multimedia video installations, group choreography and the theatre arts. Over the past two decades Shannon’s installations, performances, choreography and video work have been presented internationally at numerous venues, festivals and events including Sydney Opera House, Tate Liverpool Museum, NYC Town Hall, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, The Holland Festival Amsterdam, Temple Bar Dublin, Kiasma Museum Finland, Hirshhorn Museum and many more. Shannon also completed a project with Cirque du Soleil where he choreographed an aerial duet and a solo on crutches for their 2002 production "Varekai". Shannon has been honored with a Newhouse Foundation Award a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and a Foundation for Contemporary Art Award among others. Shannon’s work deals with the public’s hopes, assumptions, fears and designs through his blend of energetic choreography and effectively simple video techniques. Using the phenomena of public reactions in public spaces he ultimately classifies us (and therefore his disability).