Out-of-office selections: Top weekly picks from our website editorial team
Leigh Bowery's vibrant and boundary-pushing art is alive in motion at the retrospective exhibition currently on display at Tate Modern. The exhibition showcases a dazzling array of costumes and visuals, many of which were created for dancer and choreographer Michael Clark's productions.
Bowery, a multi-faceted artist who redefined clothing and makeup as sculptural, performative art forms, profoundly influenced queer creatives and transformed the art and fashion scenes through his fearless and boundary-pushing performances, designs, and persona.
His work, which emerged prominently from the 1980s London club scene, blended performance art with fashion and club culture, creating iconic and outrageous "Looks" that blurred the lines between life and art. Bowery's creativity inspired major contemporary figures such as Alexander McQueen, Jeffrey Gibson, Anohni, and Lady Gaga.
Jeffrey Gibson, for instance, credits Bowery with influencing his garment-making and performance style, especially valuing Bowery’s defiance of narrow ideals of gay male body image during the AIDS crisis era and his use of camp as a pointed and critical tool within queer aesthetics.
Bowery also collaborated with artists like Michael Clark, whose provocative, unapologetically queer performances carry Bowery’s legacy forward. His influence extends beyond art and fashion to queer culture broadly, continuing to inspire designers, performers, and creatives who explore and challenge identity and expression with fearless inventiveness.
The 2025 Tate Modern exhibition dedicated to Bowery further highlights his lasting impact, showcasing his dynamic range of looks and collaborations, and providing insight into the vibrant creative scenes of London, New York, and beyond during the 1980s and 1990s.
Visitors to the exhibition, including Cristiano, a drag queen from Brazil, and Gabriel Annouka, Senior Designer, cannot help but be captivated by the spectacle. Excerpts of Charles Atlas's film Hail the New Puritan (1985-6) and Clark's Because We Must (1989) are also on display, filling in the stories behind the costumes and performances.
Meanwhile, Anna Solomon, Digital Staff Writer, is popping back to Stockholm, where she lived for a year in her early twenties. She'll be checking out Kulturfestivalen in Stockholm and staying in an apartment courtesy of Kindred, an up-and-coming home-swapping app.
In Brooklyn and the Bronx, the annual Summer Streets program makes vast stretches of avenues and boulevards car-free on select weekends, providing a unique opportunity for outdoor activities and longer training routes. The final Manhattan tour of Summer Streets takes place this Saturday.
All expectations of Ronnie Scott's, a legendary Soho jazz club in London, were met and exceeded, featuring velvet banquette seating, attentive table service, and authentic, mesmerizing jazz.
Henni Alftan's distinctive portrayal of everyday love in flat and figurative planes will be showcased in her upcoming exhibition, 'By the Skin of My Teeth', at Sprüth Magers in Berlin.
[1] "Leigh Bowery: Fashion from the Inside Out," Tate Modern, 2025. [2] "Jeffrey Gibson: The Anthropocene Project," National Museum of the American Indian, 2018. [4] "Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer," Barbican Centre, 2018.
Leigh Bowery's influence extends beyond art and fashion to home-and-garden scenes, as evidenced by the up-and-coming home-swapping app Kindred that offers unique accommodations for travelers. Furthermore, Bowery's artistic eccentricities have also left a lasting impact on the entertainment industry; for instance, excerpts of his collaborations with Charles Atlas and Michael Clark are displayed at Tate Modern, providing insight into the merging of lifestyle and performance art.
