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Please join us on May 6th for VAVA Voom where we will be honoring a fresh point of view from within the ongoing response to HIV.
Visual AIDS is founded on the belief that art has a pivotal role to play in the AIDS crisis. Key to this belief is the role artists living with HIV play in being the authority of their own experience, informing the ongoing response to the epidemic.
In 2010, when tasked with the challenge to create his own fabric, as part of the reality show Project Runway, designer Mondo Guerra took the opportunity to share his HIV positive status through his work. He sent a pair of well fitting pants, fashioned out of connected positive signs down the runway. After winning that episode’s challenge - and disclosing his courageous story - Guerra has become a much in demand designer, and an ever-evolving health advocate. He uses his celebrity to draw attention to AIDS charities, and to empower people living with HIV to have a more liberated relationship with their healthcare providers.
For the 8th annual Visual AIDS Vanguard Awards, we are proud to present Guerra with the Bill Olander award. Named after a founding member of Visual AIDS, the award is given to an artist living with HIV who is making change through their work.
Mondo Guerra is a Denver-based designer who first endeared himself to an international audience in 2010 on Lifetime’s Project Runway season 8, and returned to television in January 2012, winning Project Runway All Stars. His innovative style and bold designs have captured the imagination of the fashion world. In addition to his remarkable success on Project Runway, audiences rallied in support of Mondo following the emotional disclosure of his HIV-positive status on the show. Since his disclosure, Mondo has become vigorous advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness.