Leigh Bowery

Tate Modern exhibition: 27 February - 2 September 2025
A towering and luminous monograph on the boundary-pushing career of artist, performer, model, TV personality, club promoter, fashion designer and musician, Leigh Bowery.

Leigh Bowery (1961-1994) used performance to explore questions around the politics of the body, and its use as both material and a site of transformation. He was also fascinated by the subversive potential of costume as sculpture.

Published to accompany a major exhibition, Leigh Bowery features over two hundred images by and of the artist - spanning an eclectic and dynamic career which included fashion photography, club polaroids, film stills, paintings, postcards, and ephemera. In addition to Bowery's own works, the book also includes paintings of the artist by Lucian Freud, and works made with and about Bowery by Stephen Willats and Trojan Barnes, among others. A visual inventory of all of Bowery's costumes, held by the artist's estate, has been newly photographed - published here for the first time.

About the Authors

Fiontan Moran is Curator, International Art at Tate Modern.

Jess Baxter is Assistant Curator of International Art at Tate Modern.

Catherine Wood is Director of Programme at Tate Modern, and curator of contemporary art and performance.