Self-taught Canadian Pop artist and activist Joe Average, who dedicated his life to uplifting those living with HIV/AIDS and advocating for the LGTBQ+ community through inspiring kaleidoscopic artwork, died in his sleep in his Vancouver home on December 24, according to his family members. He was 67 years old.
Born Brock David Tebbutt in Victoria on October 10, 1957, the artist took on the name “Joe Average” when he was 19 years old, according to Van Dop Gallery, which has shown his work since 1996. The moniker came about during a night out drinking with friends, as the artist recounted in a 2017 interview with the Vancouver Sun.
“I’m 5-8, I’m average lookin’, got a C average in school. I thought, ‘This is perfect!’ It wasn’t as wild as the other names, but it suited me to a T,” Average explained to the Canadian newspaper.
In 1985, when he was 27 years old, his life was forever altered when he was diagnosed with HIV. The news galvanized Average to wholly dedicate himself to his art practice and “make a stab at living off of art,” which up until that point had been more of a side hobby.
“When I asked the doctor what [the diagnosis] meant, he said: ‘You could last six months, you could last a year, five years, 10 years or forever … we just don’t know.’ And I said: ‘I’ll choose forever,’” he said in a 2005 interview.
At the beginning of his career, Average organized small shows in his West End apartment where works were priced according to his monthly rent. Initially inspired by First Nations art and later artists including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Peter Max, he developed a signature Pop Art style that took the form of public murals, prints, banners, and paintings, often centering on people, animals, insects, flowers, and common household items.
“I did a few images about AIDS — one called “My Thinking Cap (Life with HIV)” and one called “Ray of Hope” — when I first started the cocktail because I wanted that out of me a little bit,” Average said, referencing the “cocktail” of antiretroviral therapy drugs taken by HIV+ patients.
“For the most part though, my images aren’t so much AIDS-related — they’re more about how the child in me wants to see the world: happy and with love,” Average continued.
One of his most well-known works, created for the Eleventh International Conference on AIDS, which had the theme “One World, One Hope,” appeared in Canada’s first HIV/AIDS awareness stamp in 1996. The artwork was reproduced in 2021 as a large-scale mural that was installed in downtown Vancouver on the exterior of the Helmcken House, which provides subsidized housing for people living with HIV and AIDS. The work marked the 40th anniversary of the first reported AIDS cases in the United States.
Throughout his lifetime, Average’s advocacy work and artistry were commemorated with numerous awards and honors, including a civic proclamation by Vancouver’s former mayor Philip Owen designating November 3, 2002 as “Joe Average Day” and an Order of Canada issued on December 12, a week and a half before his death.
“His art with its bright colours brings a smile to my heart and soul,” Average’s sister Karin Tebbutt Cope Carson told Hyperallergic, adding that he “helped change how people viewed living with HIV” and that “his legacy will bring hope and happiness.”
In addition to Carson, Average is survived by his brothers KC and Mark, his father and step-mother, and two half-sisters.
