Leigh Bowery (26 March 1961 – 31 December 1994) was an Australian performance artist, club promoter, actor, pop star, model, and fashion designer, based in London. Bowery is considered one of the more influential figures in the 1980s and 1990s London and New York City art and fashion circles influencing a generation of artists and designers. His influence reached through the fashion, club and art worlds to impact, amongst others, Meadham Kirchhoff, Alexander McQueen, Lucian Freud, Vivienne Westwood, Boy George, Antony and the Johnsons, Lady Gaga, John Galliano, the Scissor Sisters, David LaChapelle, Lady Bunny plus numerous Nu-Rave bands and nightclubs in London and New York City which arguably perpetuated his avant garde ideas.

Biography

Although Bowery always described himself as gay, he married his long-time companion Nicola Bateman on 13 May 1994 in Tower Hamlets, London. He died 7 months later on New Year's Eve, 1994, from an AIDS-related illness at the Middlesex Hospital, Westminster, London. This followed on from a five-week battle that only a handful of friends were informed about.