Luke Fowler

Luke Fowler (born 1978) is an artist, 16mm filmmaker and musician based in Glasgow. Fowler was a fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute in 2015–2016

Work Fowler studied printmaking at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee. His work explores the limits and conventions of biographical and documentary film-making with an emphasis on sound, marginalised communities and radical voices. Fowler is represented by The Modern Institute (Glasgow), Galerie Gisela Capitain (Cologne), and Taka Ishii Gallery (Tokyo).

Film work He creates cinematic collages that have often been linked to the British Free Cinema movement of the 1950s, Cerith Wyn Evans, Peter Todd, William Raban, Robert Beavers, and Peter Hutton. His para-documentary films have explored counter cultural figures including Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing, English composer Cornelius Cardew, Marxist-Historian E. P. Thompson and Scottish film-poet Margaret Tait (Being in a place). In 2018, Fowler created Mum’s Cards, a short 16 mm film exploring the archival index cards accumulated by his mother, sociologist Bridget Fowler, reflecting on memory, intellectual life, and the material traces of knowledge. In 2022, Fowler directed Being in a Place – A Portrait of Margaret Tait, an experimental documentary drawing on archival footage, recordings, notebooks, and correspondence to explore the life, work, and poetic approach to cinema of Scottish filmmaker and poet Margaret Tait, with attention to her relationship to the Orkney landscape. The film premiered in the Forum section of the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival.

Films on Sound and installations Fowler’s work frequently engages with sound, the politics of music, and the communities in which music is produced and circulated. This interest is evident in his portraits of musicians and composers including Brunhild Ferrari, Patrick Cowley, Christian Wolff, and Martin Bartlett, as well as in films and installations that address place (The Room, Being Blue, Enceindre, Tenement Films, On Weaving) and acoustic phenomena (Ridges on the Horizontal Plane and Composition for Flutter Screen, both made in collaboration with Toshiya Tsunoda ).

Musical projects Fowler formed the duo Lied Music with John W. Fail, performing live music concrete The duo collaborated and performed live with Mark Vernon and Barry Burns, releasing two LPs. Since 2010, he has collaborated regularly with Richard Youngs, resulting in the box set Research Musics En-Of 50 and the avant-disco group AMOR, which released two 12″ records, an LP, and an EP on Nightschool Records.

Collaborations Fowler has worked with a number of collaborators, including Sue Tompkins (Be Dear Crazy Loud, 2003; Country Grammar, 2017), David Grubbs (J’ai pensé sans parole), Ryoko Akama (installation and performance at Hamburg papiripar festival 2025), David Toop, Lionel Marchetti (soundtracks for Being In A Place 2022 and No Interior 2023), Corin Sworn (On Weaving, 2025), Margaret Salmon (To The Editor…, 2014), Marcus Schmickler, Eric La Casa, George Clark and Peter Hutton, Mark Fell, Lee Patterson, Toshiya Tsunoda, and Richard Youngs. He collaborated with guitarist Keith Rowe and film maker and curator Peter Todd on the live sound and film work The Room.

Partial filmography

Selected exhibitions Solo

2022: Being in a Place, The Modern Institute, 3 Aird's Lane, Glasgow 2021: From Here a Home Was Imagined, CCA, Glasgow 2021: A Certain Predilection for Things Out of the Ordinary, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid 2018: Sightings: Luke Fowler, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas 2017: Gone Reflections, Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore 2015: Outside The Sound, Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge 2013: Common Sense, La Casa Encendida, Madrid 2011: Luke Fowler, Hessel Museum of Art, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York 2010: No 5, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen 2006: The Nine Monads Of David Bell, Villa Concordia, Bamberg Group 2023: Luke Fowler (SCOT) & Kasper Akhøj (DK), Stereo Exchange, Frederiksberg 2022: Citational Choices, La Trobe Art Institute, Bendigo 2011: British Art Show 7, Hayward Gallery, London 2012: he was shortlisted for the Turner Prize, for solo exhibition at Inverleith House in Edinburgh, which showcased his new film exploring the life and work of Scottish psychiatrist R.D. Laing.

Awards

2023: La Scam International Award, Cinéma du Réel, Paris 2019: Glasgow Short Film Festival Award for Best Film – Mum’s Cards 2012: Turner Prize, shortlisted 2010: Paul Hamlyn Award 2010: Donald Dewar Arts award 2008: Derek Jarman Award 2004: Shortlisted for the 2005 Beck's Futures prize