August 19, 2019 - OTTAWA – The National Arts Centre (NAC) is celebrating Capital Pride Week by displaying the artwork of renowned Canadian artist Joe Average on its three-storey digital Kipnes Lantern.

His colourful artwork will be showcased on the NAC’s digital screens throughout the week, and on the Kipnes Lantern – the largest transparent LED screen in North America – on three consecutive days starting Friday August 23 from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Joe Average’s thought-provoking designs invites viewers to interpret the art in their own way to reflect their story and experiences. The works appearing on the NAC’s Kipnes Lantern are titled “Crazy Gigolo in Search of a China Shop”, “Uniglobe Kitty”, “Lovey”, “Millicent Moderne”, “Plain Jane”, “Miss Bird of Paradise” and “Il Trovatore”, a work created for the Vancouver Opera’s production of Il Trovatore in the late 1990s. He also designed the one-dollar coin released by the Royal Canadian Mint earlier this year to commemorate 50 years of progress in recognizing the rights of LGBTQ2 Canadians.

Biography

Joe Average is a Vancouver-based artist born in 1958. In the 1970s he started exploring drawing and photography. After being diagnosed with HIV in 1984, Average made the decision to commit the rest of his life to art, and to live by his art.  Using vivid colours and bold lines as structural elements, Average created highly stylized paintings. In 2010, he started photographing again creating a series of self-portraits to document his struggles with lipoatrophy, a side effect of antiretroviral therapy. Average has lent his name and art to many social and humanitarian causes in Canada and has received countless awards and citations for his philanthropic work, including the Queen's Golden Jubilee Silver Medal for Outstanding Community Achievement.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Annabelle Cloutier
Executive Director, Communications
National Arts Centre
613-947-7000, ext. 260
Annabelle.Cloutier@nac-cna.ca