Joanne Gair

Joanne Gair
Born	c. 1958 (age 58–59) Auckland, New Zealand
Known for	Body painting, Make-up artist
Notable work	Demi's Birthday Suit (August 1992) Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues (1999–) Disappearing Model (2000)
Movement	Trompe-l'œil

Joanne "Kiwi Jo" or "Kiwi Joe" Gair (born c. 1958) is a New Zealand-born and raised make-up artist and body painter whose body paintings have been featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue from 1999 to the most recent edition. She is considered the world's leading trompe-l'œil body painter and make-up artist, and she became famous with a Vanity Fair Demi's Birthday Suit cover of Demi Moore in a body painting in 1992. Her Disappearing Model was featured on the highest rated episode of Ripley's Believe It or Not. She is the daughter of George Gair.

In addition to achieving pop culture prominence and respect in the fashion and art worlds starting with her body painting of Demi Moore, she is an award-winning make-up artist in the rock and roll world who has helped several of her music clients win fashion and style awards. She is also considered a fashion and art trendsetter, and for a long time she was associated with Madonna. In 2001, she had her first retrospective and in 2005, she published her first book on body painting. At the peak of her pop culture fame after the Vanity Fair cover, she was seriously considered for an Absolut Vodka Absolute Gair ad campaign. She has done magazine editorial work, and in 2005, she became a photographer of her own body paintings in both books and magazines.

Gair, who is New Zealand-born and was raised in Auckland, lives in the United States and is based in Los Angeles. In 1977, she began teaching dance at a New Zealand primary school. She moved from New Zealand at the age of 21 and had a variety of stops on her way to Los Angeles. Most of the time was spent in Australia and Amsterdam,until she ventured to Los Angeles at the time of the 1984 Summer Olympics, after five years away from home. With the help of the Cloutier Agency she obtained a work permit. She then approached the Chanel and Gaultier beauty salons to offer her already well-respected make-up artist services. They both accepted her and she further solidified her reputation to the point where instead of being asked if she was George Gair's daughter it was more common for her father to be asked if he was Joanne Gair's father. Her early work in the music industry included album cover and music video work for David Lee Roth, Tina Turner, Grace Jones, Annie Lennox, and Mick Jagger. One of her early successes was being employed to do Roth's 1986 Eat 'Em and Smile album cover. These experiences led to work with Madonna, which started with music videos for "Express Yourself" and "Vogue". She has also done work on music videos for Aerosmith and Nine Inch Nails. Her work on the 1997 Nine Inch Nails video for "The Perfect Drug" won her the makeup portion of the best hair/makeup in a music video at the Music Video Production Awards. She had also won awards for Madonna's Frozen. Among the other notable musicians she has worked with is Gwen Stefani, who won Most Stylish Video at the 1999 VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards working with Gair on the video for No Doubt's song "New". Gair also worked on ad campaigns and for photo features in efforts to exhibit the artistic visions of others.

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