1. Nicolai Howalt

BOXER
Throughout the years of 2000-03 the award-winning photographer Nicolai Howalt followed young Danish boys boxing in Denmark and abroad. The result is the book 'Boxer'. The book portrays a series of young boxers where Howalt's starting point is to capture the moment before and after the match. A sense of spirit, emotion, expectation and energy characterize the photographs.
The double portraits convey the dreams of boyhood, puberty and identity. The boxing match stages a platform for Howalt who otherwise refrains from describing the inner concerns of boxing or the competitive elements of the sport. Boxing becomes a symbol for the match between fear versus courage, dream versus reality. It is also about the age dividing a boy from being a man and to be on your own for the first time. As a teenager Howalt used to box, and as a consequence he has realized that the moments just before and after the match were the most tantalizing.
The American author Edward Bunker (Dog eat dog, Little Boy Blue) has written the preface to the book.
The book was published on the 14th October 2003.



Biography
Nicolai Howalt was born in Copenhagen and graduated from Denmark’s Photographic Art School Fatamorgana in 1992 and his work has documentary references, operating at the intersection of conceptual photography and installation.

Nicolai Howalt has had solo exhibitions at Esbjerg Kunstmuseum; Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York; Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen and Center for Fotografi, Stockholm among others. He has also exhibited at Statens Museum for Kunst, ARoS and Skagens Museum in Denmark, and in Korea, China, USA, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, France, Finland, England, Hungary and Turkey.

In 2001 Nicolai Howalt published the book 3x1 with Gyldendal Publishers. Boxer was published in 2003 by ArtPeople. He has received a series of grants from the Hasselblad Foundation, The Danish Ministry of Culture, The Danish Arts Foundation and The Danish Arts Council.

Nicolai Howalt is represented in numerous public collections, including The Israel Museum, Jerusalem; MUSAC, Spain, Maison Européenne de Photographie, France, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, USA, La Casa Encendida, Spain, Fondation Neuflize Vie, France, Art Foundation Majorca, Spain, Hiscox Art Project, USA. And in Denmark, The National Museum of Photography, The Danish Arts Foundation, Skagen Museum, Nykredit and Museet for Fotokunst, Brandts.

Nicolai Howalt also has a long-term collaboration with the Danish artist Trine Søndergaard. They have published books including How To Hunt, with ArtPeople in 2005 and Hatje Cantz in 2010, and TreeZone with Hassla Books in 2009, and exhibited together in Sweden, Germany, Spain, France, Canada, Finland, USA, China and Korea. Their collaborative works have received awards including the Special Jury Prize at Paris Photo 2006 and The Niels Wessel Bagge’s Foundation for the Arts Award in 2008.

Nicolai Howalt is a member of Kunstnersamfundet and The Danish Association of Visual Artists.
He is represented by Martin Asbæk Gallery in Copenhagen and Bruce Silverstein Gallery in New York.

See more work by Nicolai HERE