Quick Facts
Biography
Hank Bull (born 1949) is a Canadian multidisciplinary contemporary artist, curator, organizer and arts administrator.
Life
Hank Bull was born in Calgary, Alberta. He grew up in Toronto, where he studied at the New School of Art under Nobuo Kubota and Robert Markle. In 1973, he moved to Vancouver. Bull was married to and was a frequent collaborator with Canadian video artist Kate Craig.
Career
Bull was an early member of Vancouver's Western Front Society. He was influenced by correspondence art, fluxus, and performance. In 1976, with Patrick Ready, he started a weekly radio program on CFRO-FM, Vancouver Cooperative Radio, that became a vehicle for experiments in sound and interactive media. He has participated in artist directed experiments in telecommunications since 1979. He produced contemporary shadow theatre with Patrick Ready, Martin Bartlett and others, touring Canada and Europe. During the 1980s, he was active in developing the network of Canadian artist-run centres.
In 1999, with Zheng Shengtian, Stephanie Holmquist, and Milton Wong, Bull co-founded Centre A, the Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, a public art gallery focussing on Asian and Asian-diasporic perspectives.
Exhibitions
Bull's work has been included in numerous exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale (1986), documenta (1987) and Ars Electronica (1989). "Connexion," a career survey exhibition organized by Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, travelled to several public galleries across Canada.
Collections
Bull's work is included in a number of private and public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art New York, and the Video Data Bank in Chicago.
Publications
Connexion, 159 pages, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, 2015.
Awards
In 2014, Bull received an honorary doctorate from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design.