There’s a huge Leigh Bowery exhibition coming to Tate Modern next year.
London’s most visited art museum will host the retrospective — currently titled Leigh Bowery! (with all important exclamation mark!) — from February 2025. It will show 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 adult life, Bowery’s career would see him take on many different roles, all the while refusing to be limited by convention.
The exhibition will 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 will show how he celebrated the body as a shape-shifting tool with the power to challenge norms of aesthetics, sexuality and gender.
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Visitors can expect to see just how expansive Bowery’s influence has been since his death, with inspiration seen in the work of huge names like Alexander McQueen and Lady Gaga.
And while not explicitly mentioned yet, the show will almost certainly make a significant feature of Bowery’s relationship with artist Lucien Freud. 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. It’s likely this small intimate portrait where Freud shows Bowery close-up and naked will feature. Painted in 1991 it was acquired by Tate in 1994 — the same year as Bowery’s death.
The early info on the show so far released by Tate also suggests that this exhibition will be like no other at the London gallery. The fact that it’s being organised in close collaboration with the director and owner of Bowery’s estate — and that it’s billed as “eclectic and immersive” — means we can assume art lovers will experience Leigh’s remarkable boundary-pushing vibes within Tate’s galleries themselves.
But that’s all we know so far. Further details on when tickets will be available and exactly what objects will be going into the show will all be revealed in due course.
We do however also know that 2025 will be an eclectic year at Tate Modern. They’ll also be hosting exhibitions as eclectic as the immersive large-scale 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 2025 and runs until 2 Sep 2025.
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