Barry Kamen

b. 1963, United Kingdom
d. 2015

Barry Kamen (b. 1963, Harlow, UK – d. 2015, London, UK) was a British artist whose practice spanned painting, drawing, film, and animation. He studied Art at Cambridge College of Art in 1980, and was known for his role in the Buffalo fashion collective in 1980s London, and later for his work as a stylist.

His first solo exhibition of paintings, Treasure, was presented at Jean Paul Gaultier Atelier, Paris in 1989, before travelling to Galerie Vivienne. Subsequent exhibitions in London included History of England at C Wall (1994), Caged Waits at Bearspace (1995), and AND at 3 Fitzroy Square (1999). He also created public installations such as The Space Between at Jigsaw, New Bond Street, and contributed to group projects including The Pölstar Art Programme in Leicester Square (2000) and Art-Tube 01 on the Piccadilly Line (2001), alongside artists such as Damien Hirst, Gavin Turk, and Yoko Ono.

Since his death in 2015, the Barry Kamen Estate has worked to research and share his substantial body of work, much of which had never been exhibited. Posthumous exhibitions have included Is Is It And at Lurf Gallery, Tokyo (2024), So Be It at Estnation, Tokyo (2025), and his inclusion in major institutional shows such as The Missing Thread: Untold Stories of Black British Fashion at Somerset House (2023–24) and The Fashion Show: Everything but the Clothes at V&A Dundee (2023).