Photo by Peter Lindbergh

Jean Paul Gaultier

Jean Paul Gaultier was born in 1952 in a Paris suburb and started his career with Pierre Cardin in 1970.  Later, after working at Esterel and Patou, Gaultier started his own fashion house, staging his first show in Paris in 1976. Critical and commercial success followed quickly and by the early eighties he was one of the most talked about young designers.  He began making menswear in 1984 and haute couture in 1997. He was also the designer for Hermes womenswear from 2004 to 2011. 

Throughout his career Gaultier has worked in dance, music and the cinema. His costumes for Madonna’s Blond Ambition tour have left an indelible imprint on the popular culture. His collaborations in the cinema include The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989), Kika (1993), The City of Lost Children (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), Bad Education (2004), and The Skin I Live In (2011).

@jeanpaulgaultier

Dian Hanson

Dian Hanson was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1951. A high school dropout, she made her way to New York in 1976, where she created a variety of sex and biker magazines over 25 years, including Partner, Outlaw Biker, JUGGS and Leg Show.

In 2001 she joined Taschen Publishing as Sexy Book Editor, moved to LA, and continues writing and editing books on all facets of sexuality, both gay and straight, including Psychedelic Sex, The Big Penis Book and Tom of Finland XXL.

Photo by Britt Lloyd

Nick Knight

Nick Knight is among the world’s most influential and visionary image makers. As a photographer and director, he challenges conventional notions of beauty, including for his groundbreaking creative collaborations with Yohji Yamamoto, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Bjork, Massive Attack, Lady Gaga, and Kanye West.

He has shot and directed advertising campaigns for clients such as Lancôme, Levi Strauss & Co. , the Walt Disney Company, Tom Ford, Yves Saint Laurent, Aston Martin, Burberry, Maison Margiela, as well as editorials for Vogue, W, AnOther, V and i-D magazines. 

Knight's work has been exhibited at international institutions such as Saatchi Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Modern, J. Paul Getty Museum, and Daelim Museum.  His scientific background and long-standing commitment to experimenting with the latest technologies led Knight to launch SHOWstudio in 2000. 

In 2010 he was made Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II, and 2023 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Charles III. 

Knight lives in London with his wife and three children.

@nick_knight

Gus Van Sant

Gus Van Sant is an Oscar-nominated, Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker. After an early career in commercials, Van Sant made his narrative feature debut with 1985’s Mala Noche. He received critical acclaim for his next films Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho, the latter becoming a seminal work in the Queer New Wave movement of the 1990s. Loosely based on the works of William Shakespeare, My Own Private Idaho starred River Phoenix and debuted at the Venice Film Festival.

1997’s Good Will Hunting put Van Sant in the international spotlight. Winning two Academy Awards, the film grossed over $225 million dollars at the box office. 2003 saw Van Sant’s Elephant debut at the Cannes Film Festival; in a rare feat, the film garnered Van Sant both the Palme d’Or and the Best Director Prize at Cannes. In 2008, Van Sant cemented his status as a Queer icon by directing Milk, the biopic of slain San Francisco Supervisor and Gay civil rights leader Harvey Milk.

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Van Sant is also a prolific visual artist. Working in a variety of different media, his art centers the experience of people on the fringes of society. His work has shown in exhibitions across Europe and the United States.

@gus_van_sant

Photo by Rebecca Thomas

Princess Julia

With a career that spans over thirty years, Princess Julia is a DJ, writer, curator, and artist. “I used to think that I should concentrate on one area, but over time I have realized that my talents lie in merging different forms of expression, self and otherwise.”

Princess Julia is in her mid 60s and was part of the New Romantic movement of the late 1970s. Over the decades she has been an integral part of London counterculture, and she is an active member of the LGBTQ+ club, art and fashion scenes. Muse, model and inspiration, Princess Julia is cited by many as an icon.

@hrhprincessjulia

Cassils

Cassils is a transgender artist who makes their own body the material and protagonist of their performances. Cassils's art contemplates the history(s) of LGBTQI+ violence, representation, struggle and survival. For Cassils, performance is a form of social sculpture: Drawing from the idea that bodies are formed in relation to forces of power and social expectations, Cassils’s work investigates historical contexts to examine the present moment.

Cassils has upcoming solo exhibitions at SITE Santa Fe, Walter Philips Gallery, and Banff Center for Art and Creativity. They had recent solo exhibitions at HOME Manchester, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Perth Institute for Contemporary Arts, Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, NYC; Institute for Contemporary Art, AU; Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts; Bemis Center, Omaha; MU Eindhoven, Netherlands.

They are the recipient of the National Creation Fund, a 2020 Fleck Residency from the Banff Center for the Arts, a Princeton Lewis Artist Fellowship finalist, a Villa Bellagio Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, a United States Artist Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Creative Capital Award.

Cassils is an Associate Professor in Visual Studies at the University of Toronto.

@cassilsartist

Brontez Purnell

Brontez Purnell is the author of several books, including 100 Boyfriends, which won the 2022 Lambda Literary Award in Gay Fiction, was long-listed for the 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and the 2021 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize, and was named an Editors’ Choice by The New York Times Book Review.

The recipient of a 2018 Whiting Tennessee Williams Award for Fiction and the 2022 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Robert Rauschenberg Award, he was named one of the thirty-two Black Male Writers of Our Time by T: The New York Times Style Magazine in 2018.

Purnell is also the frontman for the band the Younger Lovers and a renowned performance artist and zine-maker.

Born in Triana, Alabama, he has lived in Oakland, California, for two decades.

@brontezpurnell

Łukasz Leja

Łukasz Leja a Polish artist in NYC, tells queer stories through his oil paintings. With a background in architectural design, he combines sharp geometric shapes with the softness of human figures.

His work offers a unique perspective on the NYC art scene, making each piece a distinct narrative of life and identity.

Leja was the Grand Prize winner of the 2022 Tom of Finland EAC.

@lukaszleja