Visionaire is a company that curates luxury art fashion experiences. Since the first issue was released under the same name, Visionaire has been seen as “the ultimate art and fashion publication.”^[1] After twenty-five years of groundbreaking creativity, Visionaire now produces art multiples, events, public art installations, film, branded content, apparel, and publications.

Using “the cross-pollination of art, fashion, film, and contemporary culture as a tool, Visionaire creates unique experiences to viewers and visitors, across multiple platforms, in physical spaces, online, and mobile.”^[2] As the network of artists, photographers, fashion designers, models, celebrities, filmmakers, writers, agents, editors, collectors, galleries, and museums that Visionaire collaborates with continues to grow, anything they produce “is a creative playground... a cabinet of irresistible curiosities. A daring iconoclast dressed to thrill."^[3]

The multi-format art-and-fashion quarterly was founded by Stephen Gan, Cecilia Dean, and James Kaliardos in 1991 as a platform for artists and photographers to present work that would otherwise have gone unseen. "Visionaire is really about a personal desire to do something. These are some of our friends who are artists' favorite images," says Gan.^[4]

The New Yorker called Visionaire “a gallery in print,” while W Magazine dubbed it as “the couture version of a magazine.” Contributors include Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, Bruce Weber, Steven Klein, Inez & Vinoodh, John Baldessari, Mert & Marcus, Raf Simons, Alexander McQueen, Kate Moss, Gigi Hadid, Demna Gvasalia, Shirin Neshat, Yoko Ono, Vik Muniz, Maurizio Cattelan, and Marina Abramović, among many more. It is one of only two still remaining out of a 1994 Vanity Fair list of 10 "upstart" magazines to watch, alongside Surface.^[5]

Visionaire was created by Stephen Gan, Cecilia Dean and James Kaliardos in a $950-a-month apartment that Gan and Kaliardos shared on West 11th Street. They had met in the mid-80s as club kids who were attending [Parsons School of Design] and were working as a photographer and a makeup artist, respectively. Dean was in high school and earned money for college walking the runways for Jean Paul Gaultier and Maison Martin Margiela. Her agent arranged to have Gan and Kaliardos work on one of her first test shoots -- "just to do a few photos for all of our books," says Dean.^[6]

Seeking a new creative outlet, the three planned a publication where art would take precedence over commerce. Using $7,000 that Gan had saved up while working at Details, the first issue of Visionaire cost $10, was not stapled, and only 1,000 copies were printed. None of the contributors were paid, but photographers like Steven Klein, Bruce Weber and Steven Meisel took notice and soon began contributing.

As Visionaire continued to grow, they launched other publications: V (1999), Vman (2003), and CR Fashion Book (2012) with Carine Roitfeld. Dean and Kaliardos had less of an interest in commercial magazines than Gan, which explains the decision to move Visionaire out of their shared office in 2014.

“Visionaire is strange,” says Kaliardos. “It’s a miracle that as a business model it’s actually made money because it’s such a quirky artistic endeavor. But these things can work. A typical magazine isn’t the only way to make it in publishing."^[7] Visionaire continues to run no ads and is currently run by Dean and Kaliardos.

From its premiere issue, Spring, in April 1991^[8] , Visionaire has challenged notions of what it means to be an art and fashion publication through each of their 66 issues. Issues have been released on a quarterly, biannually and occasionally, annually basis— it's not on a particular schedule.

Every issue of Visionaire is entirely different from the last, both in physical form and esoteric theme.^[9] With issues made from bespoke casings, luxe materials, designer spheres, electric devices, sleek metals, and couture embroidery, it is seldom just a book or magazine. "We prefer publication," says Kaliardos, one of Visionaire's founders. "We started it as this thing somewhere between an art book and a fashion magazine," adds Gan.^[10]

Words like love, forever, dream, spirit become the evocative parameter for works. Some contributors adhere closely to the theme and format, while others rail against it, producing interesting and unexpected results that are both harmonious and dissonant. Each issue is a neo-surrealist scrapbook packed with photographs, drawings, even art projects that readers can play with.

The issue's price often reflects its format. The price can also be an indication as to the limited number in distribution; it often fluctuates based on available inventory. For issue 2, "Travel," the fashion designer Isabel Toledo hand-wound each of the 1,000 copies, spiderweb-style, with yards of black thread. Each copy of issue 18 -- the curiously titled "Fashion Special," which now fetches $6,600 ($4,850 more than its original price) -- came in its own Louis Vuitton case, handmade in Paris. No. 11, "White," was the starkest and most sensually appealing of all: working with as little ink as possible, the editors used embossing, die-cutting, Braille, and clear varnish.^[11]

The periodical has manifested itself as a gleaming 10-“page” 3D gold issue, "Forever", with Kate Moss on the cover; an issue, "Sound", consisting of five 12-inch vinyl records and a MINI-branded toy car record player; an issue housed in a backpack; an issue nearly six-and-a-half feet tall that costs $2,800; and an issue, "Religion", with Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy that came in a wooden box. Their "Larger than Life" issue broke the Guinness World Record for the largest magazine ever published at 36 x 49.48 inches, but then shattered their own record with a Deluxe Edition at 57.48 x 79 inches.^[12]

For those who love art but can't afford it, Visionaire's 65th Issue, "Free" was exactly that. "A free issue — kind of the opposite of how we’re perceived, because we’re limited and numbered and expensive and hard to come by,” Dean says. “To do the exact opposite is always thrilling for us. Just shake it up a little bit.”^[13]

Artists who work in collaboration with Visionaire to produce interpretations on a theme are given freedom to push its original formats. Artworks become not just images, but scents, tastes, sounds, games, and experiences that endure. Some contributors amongst dozens of other art or fashion luminaries include Mario Testino, Bill Cunningham, Karl Lagerfeld (who shot two dozen nude portraits for a recent issue), John Baldessari and Marina Abramović. Testino proclaims that the magazine has helped liberate photographers and other artists from the white-shirt stories of the world: "Photographers have felt a new sense of freedom in working with Visionaire, and that carries over to the work created for other magazines."^[14]

In search for innovative ways to communicate the imagery submitted by contributing artists, Visionaire began to move into film. Having previously experimented with translating movement into a publication with issues such as Movement, Play, Magic, and Rio, in 2013, Visionaire began to produce film content in art and fashion area for online, festivals, site-specific installations, and cultural events.

Visionaire continues to produce and commission new films and series from original and adapted material, short- and long-form content, animations, digital works, narratives, and documentaries.

It's first film launched in 2014 with “130919 • A Portrait of Marina Abramovic”, a 3D film and sound installation by Matthu Placek, which was an official selection of Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Stockholm Film Festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinema, and Braunschweig International Film Festival.

VisionaireFILM’s “One Look” series documented the making of a dress shown at the Dior Haute Couture SS15 show. The second film of the series documented the making of the set at Marc Jacobs' RTW FW15 show. The third the making of Viktor & Rolf's wearable art FW15 Haute Couture collection and the 4th Valentino's new mascot making its first appearance at their FW15 Haute Couture collection. These films have garnered millions of views and serve as a source of inspiration for another series called “Point of View”.

In celebration of Visionaire’s 25th anniversary, 65 artists and film-makers were commissioned to create a series of artist commercials, with each film corresponding to the theme of one of their issues. Featuring cameos from celebrities like supermodel Bella Hadid brushing her teeth in Tyler Ford’s film for “Private” or a compilation of cuts where Leonardo DiCaprio is eating and drinking by Ivan Oita entitled “Taste.”^[15]

Visionaire has also begun to produce films in virtual reality (VR), with their first VR film developed in with Kaws and M&M's®. Fans are given unprecedented access to wildness of Kaws' mind via a 360 degree landscape of swirling colors, mystifying perceptions and transforming shapes while on a studio tour. "We are always looking for ways to push artistic storytelling into the future," says Kaliardos, a co-founder of Visionaire.^[16]

To commemorate Visionaire's 25th anniversary, Visionaire: Experiences in Art and Fashion was published with Rizzoli in 2016. Featuring 1,453 images from 65 of Visionaire’s past issues over two-and-a-half, the book is meant to reach a larger audience. “We wanted it to be a traditional coffee table book….It’s very easy, tangible, accessible, understandable and reasonably priced — everything that Visionaire isn’t,"^[17] says Dean.

Visionaire has organized a number of exhibitions throughout the years, most of which relate to one of their issues. Their exhibitions have been held at various galleries, art fairs, museums, and other public spaces around the world. From a taste bar at Art Basel Miami where visitors could taste flavored strips developed for their issue, "Taste"^[18] , to setting up trucks around New York City where "Free" would be distributed, Visionaire's exhibitions provide viewers a new way to experience art.

Visionaire has also worked on interactive installations like the Free Store in 2012, in collaboration with [[YOOX Net-A-Porter Group| Net-A-Porter] and Mr Porter at Art Basel, which was initiated by multimedia artist Jonathan Horowitz. Guests were told to "bring stuff in you can't use, take stuff away that you can.^[19]" Visionaire has also helped to bring John Baldessari's artwork to life in the lobby of the Chrysler Building in New York^[20] . Visitors were encouraged to take photos with the art installation and upload them to an online gallery, which added another component to the work.

In the recent years, Visionaire has also done programs at the Cadillac House in New York. One of their exhibits in collaboration with Tellart was titled “Autoportrait,” where visitors could get their portraits drawn by a robotic arm, or ‘robot artist.’^[21] Cadillac and Visionaire also unveiled “Richard Avedon – Moving Image”, where the gallery was filled with various forms of Avedon's work celebrating his 60 year-tenure as the preeminent fashion photographer who shaped contemporary image-making and international aesthetics^[22]. For the latest installment in the space, Visionaire has tapped Italian artists Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari — the duo behind mischievous, irreverent art magazine, Toilet Paper — to create an interactive installation, dubbed “Toiletpaper Paradise.”^[23]

Visionaire's publication parties have also become star-studded fashion-world events. "I think a lot of people think we only throw parties," says Dean. "They're like, 'When's the next party?' Well, usually when the next issue comes out." Parties have been held on boats, on holidays, and even in a metallic silver-covered room at the Clocktower in TriBeCa for the "Forever" issue. Apart from parties to celebrate a specific issue, Visionaire has also helped to curate Slumbr, a party organized with Grindr. Curating 5 incredible artists to tell the perfect bedtime story for the event, guests were transported to enchanting and imaginative dreamscapes at the top of the Standard High Line^[24].

Visionaire Main Site

• Menkes, Suzy (November 21, 2011). "Thinking, and Literally Looking, Very Big". The New York Times. Retrieved July 8, 2016. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Holy chic: Christina Ricci and friends get a divine new look". The Independent. April 23, 2011. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
• Williams, Maxwell (February 22, 2016). "CAA Hosts 'Visionaire' Issue Preview". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 8, 2016. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Verner, Amy (March 13, 2009). "Wearable Art: 54 Sport by Visionaire Magazine". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved July 8, 2016. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Visionaire magazine teams up John Baldessari". Vice. November 12, 2014. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
• "Visionaire's McQueen". Vogue UK. July 8, 2010. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
• Wilson, Gaby (November 3, 2011). "Lady Gaga Is Cover Mermaid For 'Visionaire' Record-Breaking Larger Than Life Issue". MTV News. Retrieved July 8, 2016. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Gaga to feature on 7x5 foot magazine cover". NDTV. November 6, 2011. Retrieved July 8, 2016.
• Kim, Gemma (July 7, 2016). "How 'Visionaire' became much more than a traditional print magazine". Fashionista. Retrieved July 8, 2016.

• Official website