Nina Mae Fowler’s practice interrogates the mythology of Hollywood, using drawing as a means to both reconstruct and unsettle its most enduring icons. Working from archival material - publicity stills, paparazzi images, and film fragments - Fowler translates widely circulated images into meticulously rendered works that often exist between drawing and sculpture. In doing so, the artist introduces a temporal and conceptual distance between the immediacy of the photograph and the slow, deliberate act of making.

Central to Fowler’s work is a sustained engagement with the female figure as both subject and spectacle. The ‘Edith’ series focuses on the women who shaped Hollywood from behind the scenes, taking as its point of departure the legendary costume designer Edith Head - one of the most decorated figures in Academy Award history, yet one whose influence remained largely obscured from public view. Rather than depicting her designs directly, Fowler turns to the actresses Head helped construct, cropping tightly into their faces, amplifying expressions that oscillate between poise and vulnerability.

The addition of baroque flame pearls, suspended beneath each work on fine chains, operates as both material and symbolic homage to Head’s legacy within costume design. Their irregular, organic forms resist ideals of perfection, instead pointing to the way something of value is formed around a point of disturbance - an analogy that resonates with the construction of the star image itself. Alluding to the labour and authorship that remain hidden beneath the surface of cinematic glamour, these pearls “offer a symbol of guardianship, fallen grace and ruined finery.” (Nina Mae Fowler)

A strip of black mirrored glass further complicates the viewing experience, subtly implicating the audience within the work. As viewers encounter their own reflection, Fowler foregrounds the reciprocal relationship between star and spectator. The visibility, success, and eventual decline of these figures are inseparable from the gaze that elevates and consumes them. In this way, Fowler invites a moment of self-reflection: to consider not only the lives of these women, but our own role in sustaining the systems that shape them.

Drawing upon the visual culture of mid-20th century cinema, Nina Mae Fowler uses the past as a lens through which to examine ongoing dynamics of fame, gender, and power. Her works expose the tension between image and reality, revealing the cost of visibility and the fragility that underpins even the most enduring icons.