Known for her sumptuously detailed large-scale drawings and installations, Nina Mae Fowler’s work interrogates themes of celebrity, beauty, power and sexuality. Preoccupied with Hollywood’s ‘Golden Age’, Fowler treats the period as a crucible of our own, revelling in its sheer visual richness at the same time as it critiques our culture’s obsession with stardom, as well as the ubiquitous presence of the photographic lens in the reception of imagery. Since her nomination for the BP Portrait Prize in 2008, Fowler’s work has won widespread acclaim. It is featured in numerous collections of international significance, and she enjoys close working relationships with leading fine art institutions including the National Portrait Gallery. A monograph of her work entitled 'Nina Mae Fowler: Measuring Elvis' was published by Cob Gallery in 2015, and features commentary from an array of cultural luminaries including the National Portrait Gallery’s former director Sandy Nairne and the playwright Polly Stenham.
Nina Mae Fowler (b.1981) has been shortlisted for numerous prestigious prizes and awards, including the Jerwood Drawing Prize (2015 & 2010), Aesthetica Art Prize (2014), Drawing Now Award (2014), Young Masters Prize (2012) and the BP Portrait Award (2008). Past commissions have included portraits of evolutionary biologist Professor Richard Dawkins and biographer Dame Hermione Lee. Her works have been exhibited internationally, including frequent solo exhibitions in London, Paris and Leipzig, and are held in private and public collections including New College, Oxford, UK and the ‘Try-me’ collection, a public foundation in Richmond, Virginia. In 2018 David Lynch’s establishment Silencio in Paris held a retrospective of Fowler’s work. Fowler’s major new commission of portrait drawings of 9 of the UK’s leading film directors was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in April 2019. Luminary Drawings: Portraits of Film Directors by Nina Mae Fowler are now part of the permanent collection, and were on public display at the Museum until October 2019.