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. In 2019, Fowler was awarded a major commission for The National Portrait Gallery. Entitled ‘Luminary Drawings’, the series comprises nine portraits of leading British Film Directors which now form part of the museums permanent collection, including Sam Mendes, Ken Loach, Nick Park and Sally Potter.
Nina Mae Fowler lives and works in Norfolk. Since graduating in Fine Art Sculpture from Brighton University in 2003, Fowler has been shortlisted for numerous prizes and awards, including the Jerwood Drawing Prize (2015 & 2010), The Discerning Eye Drawing Bursary Award (2016), Aesthetica Art Prize (2014), Drawing Now Award (2014), Young Masters Prize (2012) and the BP Portrait Award (2008). Her works have been exhibited within the context of cultural institutions and museums including; Kunstsaele Berlin, Germany (Drawing WOW, 2020) and Neuer Kunstverein Aschaffenburg, Germany (Starke Frauen, 2013). Fowler has exhibited in galleries internationally, which includes frequent solo and group exhibitions in London (Cob Gallery, Lazarides), Paris (Galerie Suzanne Tarasieve, Galerie Dukan), Hamburg, Berlin (artnow Gallery), Leipzig and Hong Kong (Contemporary by Angela Li). Her works are held in notable private and public collections including; The National Portrait Gallery (UK), Balliol, Magdalen and New Colleges Oxford (UK), Colección Al Limite (Chile), Imago Mundi, Luciano Bennetton Collection (Treviso, Italy) and the ‘Try-me’ Collection, (Virginia, USA). In 2018, film director David Lynch’s establishment Silencio in Paris held a retrospective of Fowler’s work. In 2019, Fowler featured on BBC Radio 4 as part of 'Only Artists’ and in conversation with Oscar winning British film director Nick Park. Further publications include the artist's monograph Measuring Elvis (Cob Gallery, 2015) which features contributions from playwright Polly Stenham and the former director of the National Portrait Gallery, Sandy Nairne, and Ruined Finery (Cob Gallery 2020) featuring essays from Alissa Bennet and Dame Marina Warner.