Leigh Bowery

Leigh Bowery was a flamboyant performance artist, club promoter, and fashion designer whose radical body-based costumes and personas fundamentally challenged conventions of identity, beauty, and the human form. Based primarily in London, he became a central figure in the 1980s and 1990s club scene, founding the legendary Taboo nightclub and collaborating with choreographer Michael Clark. He formed a profound artistic partnership with painter Lucian Freud, sitting for numerous celebrated nude portraits, and performed with his band Minty, pushing the boundaries of performance art until his death from AIDS-related illness in 1994.