How Gigi Hadid Went From Supermodel to Contemporary Art Star
Gigi Hadid for Visionaire Free Art. (Photo courtesy of Visionaire)
Supermodel Gigi Hadid is arguably the most famous 21-year-old in the world. With more than 17 million Instagram followers and a retired One Direction member boyfriend, and having starred in major advertisements for Tom Ford, Versace, and recently BMW, Hadid shows absolutely no sign of losing relevance in pop culture — nor is she limiting herself to only modeling.
Her most recent contribution is an artistic collaboration with contemporary art publisher Visionaire World, which is repurposing one of Hadid’s most-liked Instagram photos by printing special copies of the image and distributing prints around New York City — for free.
“We really wanted to do something that’s totally opposite of what we usually do,” Visionaire co-founder Cecilia Dean said, admitting that often the company’s projects are “limited, hard to find, and expensive.” As a small company, Visionaire teamed up with Belgian beer brewer Stella Artois, which financed the project by printing thousands of artful, collectable posters — to be distributed in Miami and Los Angeles and available starting Thursday in NYC — from dozens of notable artists.
John Baldessari for Visionaire Free Art. (Photo courtesy of Visionaire)
“Some of the artists we’ve chosen to collaborate with sell their works for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars,” Dean said about her roster, including John Baldessari (who sold a painting in 2014 for $2.5 million). “But when we approached them, they were so excited to reach a broader audience and to do it for free.”
Though Visionaire has never worked with Hadid in the past, Dean is nonetheless inspired by the supermodel as an artistic figure. “When we asked Gigi Hadid to participate at first, we’d been talking to photographers — all of them men — to shoot a really sexy image,” Dean said. “However, it just wasn’t working, so we decided to go straight to the woman and put her in charge of the image and how she wanted to represent herself. Gigi wanted to use her most-liked Instagram picture, which we found to be modern and relevant in a digital age.” (The Instagram picture has recently been numerically trumped by 1.4 million likes — a photo of Hadid with a cat and her boyfriend, Zayn Malik.)
Hadid’s Instagram turned art will be distributed around the same time Frieze New York, the city’s leading art fair, takes place; last year celebrity artist Richard Prince sold his Instagram art there for $100,000. Thankfully this year, we can score some Insta-art for free.
Join Visionaire’s Free Art distribution at these NYC locations this week:
Thursday, May 5, through Sunday, May 8: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. at Times Square Arts on Broadway plaza between 43rd and 44th streets
Thursday, May 5, 4 p.m.-8 p.m. at NADA New York, Basketball City at 299 South Street on the East River
Friday, May 6, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. at Union Square West between 15th and 16th streets
Saturday, May 7, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. in the Meatpacking District, 14th Street between Washington Street and Tenth Avenue
Sunday, May 8, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. in SoHo, Lafayette Street between Spring and Broome streets
*Artists include Daniel Arsham, John Baldessari, Anton Corbijn, Wim Delvoye, Milton Glaser, Gigi Hadid, Glenn Ligon, Christian Marclay, Shirin Neshat, Yoko Ono, Ugo Rodinone, and Mario Sorrenti.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
