Deborah Schamoni

Nicole Wermers (b. 1971, Emsdetten, DE) lives and works in London and Emsdetten. For over two decades, Nicole Wermers has explored the physical and structural hierarchies of urban space in relation to the bodies – both present and absent – subjected by them, drawing on references from art history and vernacular culture. Her characteristically evocative and slyly humorous work often challenges the classical – and male-associated – vertical trajectory of sculpture. Combining and reconfiguring familiar objects into new material forms, Wermers addresses the structures of ritualised social relations and the material objects through which these associations are communicated. These works transform, contain, and frame their environment, prompting a deeper consideration of how surface and design read as social and cultural indicators.

In 2024 Wermers was the recipient of the Helmut-Kraft-Foundation Prize for Fine Arts as well as the Arts Council Acquisition Prize. She has been awarded the Rome Prize of the German Academy Villa Massimo, Rome in 2012. In 2015, Wermers was nominated for the Turner Prize. Since 2017 she has been a professor for sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions and commissions at Tate Britain, London, UK (2013); Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland (2022); The Common Guild, Glasgow, UK (2024); Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore, Ireland (2025); Aspen Art Museum, Colorado, USA (2007); Kunstverein in Hamburg, Germany (2018); Villa Massimo German Academy, Rome (2022); Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany (2011); Camden Arts Centre, London, UK (2005); and Secession, Vienna, Austria (2004); among others.

Wermers’ works are in the public collections of Tate, London; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; Sammlung Verbund, Vienna; Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana, California; Galerie der Gegenwart/ Kunsthalle Hamburg; Sammlung Stiftung Kunsthalle, Kunstmuseum Bern; Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Berlin; Government Art Collection, London; British Council Collection, London; Arts Council Collection, London/New York City; Kunstmuseum Ravensburg, Karl-Ernst Osthaus Museum, City of Hagen; DGZ Bank Collection, Düsseldorf; Sammlung Museum Weserburg, Bremen, DE; Museum Brandhorst, Munich and Fondazione Halevim, Milan.

Her public sculpture Emscher Folly (2022) is permanently installed as part of the Emscher Kunstweg (Emscher River Art Trail) in Duisburg, Germany.