Capital Pride Art on Sparks!

"All Together Now!"

- Capital Pride

Capital Pride 2022 is happening August 21 - 28th! This year's programming includes a public art project reflecting the 2022 theme, "All Together Now!" We are delighted to share that Sparks Street will be the host location to showcase not ONE, but TWO works in this collection in the name of PRIDE!

In collaboration with Capital Pride, we are thrilled to have the installations of Mike Steinhauer and Nicolo Gentile exhibiting on Sparks Street beginning August 19th just in time for the city-wide festival!

Here's the map of where to find all of Capital Pride's Public Art Projects during the festival:

About the Art & Artist Bios

Learn a little about the installations and artists from their bios below and visit Sparks Street to take in the featured exhibits!

Medicine Cabinet

"Medicine Cabinet pays homage to a generation of queer people that fought for the rights and opportunities so many of us enjoy today. The tiled wall and sink reference a bathroom found in New York during the 1980s when the city was the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic. Placed in the wire trash can are empty bottles of antiretrovirals and PrEP—a pre-exposure prophylaxis used today to reduce the risk of HIV infection.

The blue capped bottles reference AZT—the first drug to treat those with HIV and delay the onset of AIDS. Unlike the drugs prescribed today, AZT had significant side effects and was extremely toxic. While both AZT then and PrEP today mark critical advancements, inequities in access continue.

You are invited to step up to the work, to add your own empty bottles or to simply sit on a bench to pause and reflect. The collected bottles will be reused for a future presentation."

ABOUT THE ARTIST

"Mike Steinhauer is a queer Ottawa-based photographer, conceptual artist and freelance writer. He has a Master of Arts from Carleton University and a Bachelor of Arts in History of Art and Visual Culture from the University of Alberta.

Mike’s work has been featured in a number of exhibitions. Most recently, his work was included in Reality Vanishing In Plain Sight, an exhibition organized by the Propeller Art Gallery, Toronto. His installation, The illusion of choice, was presented at Queens University’s Union Gallery in Kingston. His photography has been featured in a number of publications including Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art’s Interview publication and on the cover of HAS magazine, a project by UNESCO and Mémoire de l’Avenir. Born in Luxembourg, Mike now lives with his partner here in Ottawa."

Find Mike Steinhauer's compelling work on Sparks Street between Metcalfe and O'Connor.

Mike Steinhauer setting up his art exhibit on Sparks Street Aug. 19, 2022

Mike Steinhauer's 'Medicine Cabinet' on Sparks Street. Photo provided by capitalcontent.ca

Tough Love

"In Nicolo Gentile’s work Tough Love, the architecturally-scaled ball chain curtain, a monumental feature of public cruising and sex clubs, is reenvisioned as an experiential threshold to queer imagination, radicalism and archive. A queer club and kink image is rendered fractured, porous and unfixed on the curtain’s surface. Temporarily animated by the viewer passing through, this work explores both a radical and fraught Queer history and offers the act of remembrance as a gesture of communal mourning, celebration, and exegesis.

What was forgotten on the road to assimilation? How can past tactics of resistance be repurposed to address ongoing issues of alienation and political complacency? What are the capacities of pleasure and ecstasy? What potential lies in the tension between looking back and moving forward?"

ABOUT THE ARTIST

"Nicolo Gentile is an artist and educator living and working in Philadelphia, PA. Composed of leather, latex, iron and steel, his sculptures and installations slip between recognizable materials of kink, industry and sport to address the commodification of queer aesthetics and the oscillating power dynamics of gender, whiteness and masculinities.

He received his Master of Fine Art in Sculpture at The Tyler School of Art and Architecture of Temple University. His work has been exhibited in the United States and internationally in Philadelphia, New York, Portland, Los Angeles, Paris, Melbourne, and now Ottawa."

Gentile's engaging piece being showcased for Capital Pride can be found between O'Connor and Bank streets.

Nicolo Gentile setting up his art exhibit on Sparks Street Aug. 19, 2022

Nicolo Gentile's 'Tough Love' on Sparks Street. Photo provided by capitalcontent.ca

The two works of art will remain on Sparks Street for the duration of the festival. Exhibit info and artist bios provided by Capital Pride. Please feel free to tag us @Sparks_Street on Instagram and/or use #MySparksStreet while visiting!

Happy Pride!