Leigh Bowery exhibition at Tate Modern celebrates boundary-pushing artist
- maxwell museums
- Jul 18, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 30
A huge Leigh Bowery exhibition is now open at Tate Modern.
London’s most visited art museum host's the retrospective — titled Leigh Bowery! (with all-important exclamation mark!) — until August 2025. It shows how the boundary-pushing artist, performer, model, designer, TV personality, club promoter and musician left a sensational legacy from his short life.
Born in Australia but based in London for much of his adulthood, Bowery’s career would see him take on many different roles, all the while refusing to be limited by convention.
The exhibition — and the equally-huge accompanying Bowery book*— span his emergence in the British capital’s club scene in the 1980s through to his outrageous performances in galleries, theatres and even in the street. It shows how he celebrated the body as a shape-shifting tool with the power to challenge norms of aesthetics, sexuality and gender.
What's inside the Leigh Bowery exhibition?
The retrospective was first billed as “eclectic and immersive.” And the exhibition reviews suggest it lives up to this. One critic — the Spectator’s Digby Warde-Aldam — said it features a “borderline-unhinged exhibition design.”
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In terms of objects that can be seen, for the first time Tate Modern have been able to bring together Bowery’s outlandish and dazzling costumes alongside painting, photography and videos to explore how he changed art, fashion and popular culture forever.
Bowery quickly learned after his arrival in London that there was social currency in setting himself apart from the crowd through his bold and distinctive style. So visitors can get up close to the intricate costumes he hand-crafted with collaborator Nicola Rainbird — who later became his wife — and corsetier Mr Pearl. Photographs by Fergus Greer illustrate how Bowery brought these to life in animated ways.
Visitors also get to step into Bowery's world of the 1980s — including his own club night Taboo which he launched in 1985 and which cemented his international reputation — via an exciting music and video installation by filmmaker and DJ Jeffrey Hinton which has been made especially for the exhibition.
Another highlight is filmmaker Dick Jewell’s What’s Your Reaction to the Show? from 1998 which reveals the honest opinions of the cast of friends, colleagues and passersby who witnessed Bowery's hugely ambitious and groundbreaking 'mirror' performance. In the performance, Bowery dressed up and posed in front of a two-way mirror for five days allowing viewers to watch him while he was oblivious to their gaze.
But for many art lovers, it's Bowery’s relationship with artist Lucien Freud that will be a big draw.
Their connection began when Freud invited Bowery to be his model, with Bowery's distinctive and larger-than-life presence providing Freud with a fascinating subject that led to a series of striking and memorable portraits of Bowery that continue to be admired to this day.
Several of Freud’s personal portraits of Bowery are displayed in the exhibition, showing how the renowned artist presented a fresh view of this flamboyant performer..
Prompted by the intimacy of posing for Freud, Bowery increasingly began using his body as raw material. So there's also portraits by photographers including Nick Knight and films by Charles Atlas on display, highlighting how Bowery was able to use his body as a form of contemporary surrealism.
Visitors should be warned though: there's a lot to see here. Across nine-sections, there's vast collections of ephemera alongside more standout artworks and objects. One art critic for the Guardian thought the show is “overstretched.” But perhaps curators abandoned the less-is-more mantra as it doesn't feel very 'Bowery'?
Leigh Bowery! exhibition tickets
Adult tickets to see the Bowery retrospective are £18. Students can see it for £17, and Tate Members get in free.
And if you're a big Bowery fan, you'll can also grab a copy of a brand new and massively comprehensive new book on his life and career. It features over two hundred images by and of the artist, including those iconic paintings by Lucien Freud. And even more excitingly, Bowery's entire costume archive has been newly-photographed and is published here for the very first time. You can buy the Bowery book right now*.
2025 will be eclectic at Tate Modern — perhaps matching Bowery's vibe! They’ll also be exhibitions ranging from the large-scale colourful installations of Korean-born, London-based artist Do Ho Suh, a group exhibition on Nigerian Modernism, and a unique focus on Picasso’s The Three Dancers painting.
Leigh Bowery! opens at Tate Modern in London on 27 February, and runs until 02 Sep 2025.
*Purchases made through some links in this article may result in a valuable commission (at no extra cost to you) for this website.
What else is on at Tate Modern in 2025?
Tate Modern to celebrate Picasso's Three Dancers with centenary exhibition
A career-spanning exhibition of artist Do Ho Suh opens in May 2025
