Barry Kamen

Barry Kamen (1963 – 2015) was a British artist, stylist and model of Burmese, Irish, Dutch and French descent who, in 1980, studied art at Cambridge College of Art.

His oeuvre includes a range of media from paintings, drawings and collage to film, photography, and print, and has a breadth of style from abstraction and expressionism to portraiture.

His influences too were wide; Cy Twombly, Velazquez, Holbein and the Old Masters amongst them.

Kamen began modelling in his teens and, along with his brother Nick Kamen, was a muse for Ray Petri and the radical Buffalo movement which transformed the fashion industry, drawing on the styles of the street and global influence; pairing sportswear with street couture, and working with racially diverse models. During that period Kamen formed friendships and made contacts, including with musicians and fashion designers, with whom he would go on to collaborate over the following decades. Such collaboration included his producing album art, not only for his brother Nick but also for Diana Ross, Elton John, Manic Street Preachers and UB40.

In 1989 the first solo exhibition of Kamen’s work, entitled ‘Treasure’ was held at Jean-Paul Gaultier’s studio in Paris.

His work was subsequently exhibited in several group shows, nationally and internationally and is part of many private collections including those of Naomi Campbell, Neneh Cherry, Kate Moss and Helmut Lang.

Following his sudden death in 2015, the Barry Kamen Estate was founded in 2022. Christie's placed Kamen’s work in auction for the first time in 2023, and his first posthumous solo exhibition was held at Lurf Gallery, Tokyo, in September 2024.