Node Quickview

Born on July 4, 1900, artist Nellie Mae Rowe lived through the 20th century, creating art largely in obscurity and guided by what she saw as a God-given gift. The daughter of a sharecropper and former slave, she used found materials to make her work and later transformed her home into her “Playhouse,” a colorful world of drawings, sculptures, dolls, and collected objects. Six years before her death, gallerist Judith Alexander “discovered” her and brought her art to wider attention. Rowe’s remarkable story is told through stop-motion animation, drawings, and interviews. Rotten Tomatoes rating of 100%. 

"This winning overview of the life of self-taught black artist Nellie Mae Rowe and her white patron, Judith Alexander, also doubles up as a social history of 20th-century Atlanta, Georgia." - The Guardian

NR, 97 min., 2023.