Curtis Kulig
Prize

Prize features forty mixed-media works on paper that explore the nuanced and poetic movement of professional boxing. Like dancers, boxers exist in the physical moment—the body is their medium and every gesture is an articulation of strategy. The end result is exhaustion, but Kulig’s boxers are frozen in the moment, giving the viewer a chance to linger over their angled, twisting figures mid-fight. The prize for the two fighters at the end of a boxing match is either agony or euphoria, defeat or triumph.

The publication, and corresponding exhibition, draw from Kulig’s relationship with his Uncle Davy, an amateur boxer and free spirit who had a profound effect on the artist’s life. The opening and closing pages of Prize present archival film stills from two fights featuring Uncle Davy in 1982.

Press: NY Art Beat

Collections: MoMA Library

Published by Pacific, Texts by Karen Wong and Max Blagg, Hardcover, 9 × 9 inches, 112 pages, Edition of 300