Snow, Michael

Michael Snow was Canadian visual artist, filmmaker andmusician. Considered to be the father of structuralist film, was also a pioneer of video art. His 1967 film Wavelength established him as the creator of a new filmic language. Snow was a multidisciplinary artist who has turned his hand to experimental filmmaking, installation, sculpture, video, and photography. He was also a musician and founder of CCMC, an improvisational ensemble that plays experimental music influenced by jazz. Regardless of the media he chose in each case, his work always explores the expressive potential of image and sound. He was more interested in formal matters than pure storytelling, and his films used zooms, wide angles and camera movements to explore the possibilities of the medium. He was part of a generation of minimalist artists that includes figures like Bruce Nauman and Richard Serra.

Snow’s work can be found in the collections of major institutions such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Canada, the Haifa Museum of Art in Israel and MACBA. Since his early exhibitions at Documenta 5 and 6 in Kassel in 1972 and 1977, he exhibited his work in numerous cities in Europe and the United States. Snow received awards from many experimental film festivals around the world, and he performed his music in the United States, Europe and Japan. Apart from an extensive bibliography on his visual and sound work, he has also an extensive discography.