© National Portrait Gallery 2025
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196
Leigh Bowery
Biography
Leigh Bowery (1961-1994), London-based designer and nightclub performer, was born in the Melbourne suburb of Sunshine, and attended school in Melbourne before briefly studying fashion design at RMIT.
2 portraits in the collection
Leigh Bowery, 1984
Robyn Beeche
Portrait, type C photograph on paper
Gift of Claudia Hyles, Dr Christiane Lawin-Bruessel, Gwenda Matthews, Gael Newton, Anne O'Hehir, Susan Smith and Dominic Thomas in memory of our friend, Robyn Beeche 2016
Leigh Bowery in Fur Coat, c. 1983 (printed 2005)
David Gwinnutt
Portrait, gelatin silver photograph on paper
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2005
Hyperversity
Magazine article by Dr Sarah Engledow, 2006
Dr Sarah Engledow writes about the larger-than-life Australian performance artist, Leigh Bowery.
De Gruchy & Leigh
Biography
De Gruchy & Leigh was a publishing and printing firm operating in Melbourne and regional Victoria from the late 1850s until the mid 1860s.
2 portraits in the collection
Cousins, 2013
by Leigh Harris
Image
Leigh Hobbs, 1993
Francis Reiss
Portrait, inkjet print on paper
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
R O'Hara Burke, c. 1861
De Gruchy & Leigh
Portrait, lithograph on paper
Purchased 2009
William John Wills, c. 1861
De Gruchy & Leigh
Portrait, lithograph on paper
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2009
Portrait 20
June - August 2006
Magazine
This issue of Portrait Magazine features Dame Nellie Melba and Frances Alda, Leigh Bowery, Karin Catt, Sidney Nolan and more.
Smalltown Boy (Surfers Paradise), 2018
The Huxleys
Portrait, gilcée print on paper
Purchased 2021
Smalltown Boy (Perth), 2018
The Huxleys
Portrait, gilcée print on paper
Purchased 2021
Every flap, fold and bulge
Magazine article by Starr Figura, 2008
Lucian Freud's unflinching realism is on display in the first solo exhibition of his paintings and etchings at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 
The Dipper
Moustaches
One of the versions of thick, macho moustache strongly associated in the Australian visual lexicon with sportsmen of the 1970s and 80s.
Athol Shmith, 1985
Michel Lawrence
Portrait, type C photograph on paper
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 1999
John Longstaff
Biography
Sir John Longstaff, born in Clunes, Victoria, studied at the NGV school from 1883 to 1887 and thenceforth at Corman's in Paris.
1 portrait in the collection