The late Buffalo collective icon is honored with a London exhibition exploring his work across film, collage, and painting.
Ten years after his passing, Barry Kamen is finally receiving the large-scale recognition his art deserves.
“Barry Kamen: If It Is “– on view at London’s Graces Mews–is the first major solo exhibition devoted to the late artist, stylist, and model. The show repositions Kamen’s legacy beyond his iconic presence in the 1980s fashion scene, revealing the scope of his multidisciplinary art practice.
Born in Harlow, U.K., in 1963, Kamen came of age amid Britain’s creative upheaval. He and his brother Nick entered London’s avant-garde through stylist Ray Petri, whose “Buffalo” collective redefined the visual language of fashion. The group of designers, photographers, stylists, and models mixed sportswear with couture, styled men in skirts with bomber jackets, and showcased racially diverse models in seminal spreads for i-D, The Face, and Arena.
While Kamen found success as a model and stylist, he also sought expression through paint and film. Kamen developed a visual language that merged mark-making, gesture, and bodily movement with a meditative attention to surface.
“If It Is” marks the first comprehensive presentation of Kamen’s artistic output, centering on two of his experimental films—Assembly (1995) and PatRIOT (2000)—digitized and sequenced by Graces Mews from recently recovered 35 mm reels. The continuous projections draw viewers into Kamen’s process: pen marks etched directly onto blank celluloid, hand-drawn figures flickering across layered images of London.
The films appear alongside paintings and drawings that line the gallery’s walls. Kamen’s 1990s series “Caged Waits“—abstract canvases rendered in sky blue, cream, and graphite—anchors the exhibition. Inspired by spinal imagery, the rhythmic brushstrokes evoke bones and motion, mirroring Kamen’s own sense of physicality and belonging.
Later works incorporate plaster motifs that suggest skin, surface, and repair. These pieces soften the divide between representation and objecthood, reflecting Kamen’s ongoing search for new ways to inscribe meaning into matter.
His fluid approach—across film, painting, collage, and drawing—anticipates the hybrid practices of today’s artists who reject strict divisions between mediums.
Throughout his practice, Kamen stripped language to its barest form. He found meaning in the smallest words. Simple conjunctions like “and,” “is,” and “it” become existential signifiers, nodding to Zen thought and cycles of wholeness, repetition, and acceptance. The exhibition’s title, “If It Is,” comes from one of these works, capturing his fixation on the moment before meaning takes shape.
Although his paintings remained largely unseen during his lifetime, the Barry Kamen Estate has since brought his work to light. Recent exhibitions in Tokyo and his inclusion in institutional shows, such as “The Missing Thread: Untold Stories of Black British Fashion” at London’s Somerset House, have helped spread understanding of his cultural impact. “If It Is” builds on that momentum, positioning Kamen as both a witness to and shaper of his era.
What emerges at Graces Mews is a portrait of an artist who refused to separate disciplines or identities. Kamen is revealed as an artist less concerned with definition than with the continual exploration of self, medium, and meaning.
The show runs from October 17 to November 29 at Graces Mews, a multi-faceted photography-led creative space in Camberwell founded by photographer and filmmaker Tyrone Lebon.
Homepage image; Barry Kamen, Film still from ‘patRIOT’, 2000. Inside image left; Untitled(from the Caged Waits Series), 1991 Coffee, acrylic and graphite on paper 60 x 86.5 cm, and right; Untitled(from the ‘And’ series),1999 Acrylic, pen, crayon and graphite on found text42.4 x 27.9 x 3 cm. Above left; Untitled, 2014-2015Ink and graphite on paper80.5 x 60 cm, and right; Untitled (IAM),2013Ink, acrylic and newsprint on paper80.5 x 60 cm (framed). Film Still and artwork courtesy of Barry Kamen Estate and Graces Mews.
