Bill Shannon (born 1970) is an American artist who resides in Brooklyn. Shannon holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Born with a degenerative hip condition, he developed a way to express himself through dance and skateboarding on crutches.
Performances and video work include:
Kaaitheater, Brussels Performance Space 122, NYC The Kitchen, NYC Sydney Opera House Studio Theater, AustraliaWalker Art Center, Minneapolis Portland Institute for Contemporary Art , ORCentral Park SummerStage, NYC Dance City, Newcastle, England Contact Theater, Manchester, England Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Arizona State University , TempeThe Exit Festival, Cretiel, France Amman International Festival of Independent Theater, Amman, Jordan Holland Festival , AmsterdamTemple Bar , Dublin, IrelandURB Festival, Helsinki Melbourne Fringe Festival Teatro de la Ciudad in Monterrey, Mexico"Work It Out" music video by RJD2 (2007) 'Life flows better' Visa advert, (2009) In 2002, he completed a project with Cirque du Soleil choreographing parts of their production Varekai .
His visual and multimedia art have been exhibited in contemporary museums, galleries and fairs include:
ArtDC in Washington, DC (2007) Kiasma Helsinki Museum of Contemporary Art in Finland (2005) Tate in Liverpool, England (2003)Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco (2005).Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch" in 2001 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 Foundation for Contemporary Performance Art Award Colbert Award for Excellence: The Downtown Arts Projects Emerging Arts Award Pennsylvania Council of the Arts Interdisciplinary Arts Fellowship Wynn Newhouse Award in 2010National Endowment for the Arts the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts Jerome Foundation New York Foundation for the Arts New York State Council for the Arts James E. Robison Foundation Bossak-Heilbron Charitable Foundation The Harkness Foundation for Dance Arts International: The Fund for U.S. Artists at International Festivals. 2000: Mantis Battle (Solo Category) in NYC; placed second in ProAms Florida (Abstract Category) 2002: Most Creative Street Dancer by the LA Urban Dance Festival.