Tate Modern traced Leigh Bowery from the Taboo club of 1985 to his performances and Looks, with work by Lucian Freud, Nick Knight and Fergus Greer, in an exhibition made with his Estate.
Leigh Bowery, the Australian-born performer who sat for Lucian Freud, was the subject of an exhibition at Tate Modern on Bankside from Thursday 27 February to Sunday 31 August 2025. Tate organised it with the Estate of Leigh Bowery.
Bowery was born in Melbourne in 1961 and moved to London in 1980. In 1985 he opened the club Taboo at Maximus in Leicester Square with the promoter Tony Gordon, and Boy George, John Galliano and Judy Blame were among its regulars.
He designed costumes for Michael Clark’s dance company, showed fashion collections in London, New York and Tokyo, and performed in galleries, theatres and on the street. He died on 31 December 1994, aged 33.
Tate described him as an artist, performer, model, television personality, club promoter, fashion designer and musician who reimagined clothing and make-up as painting and sculpture. His influence, it said, reached Alexander McQueen, Jeffrey Gibson, Anohni and Lady Gaga.
The exhibition showed many of his Looks beside work made with collaborators including John Maybury, Baillie Walsh, Fergus Greer, Nick Knight and Freud. Sue Tilley, Trojan, Princess Julia, Les Child, Andrew Logan, Lady Bunny, Scarlett Cannon and MINTY were among the people from his scenes it showed.