Copenhagen
2025
In the winter of 2022, Noah Holtegaard buys an old edition of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Little Mermaid. By coincidence, a newspaper clipping from Politiken, dated March 22, 1981, is tucked inside. In it, a gay rights activist writes about Andersen’s infatuations with men. One infatuation in particular is emphasized, that with Edvard Collin, who ends up marrying a woman and definitively rejects Andersen’s love.
It is in the months after this rejection Andersen writes The Little Mermaid: the story of a mermaid’s love for a human prince. In many ways, the prince embodies everything the mermaid dreams of becoming: a human being capable of being loved by another human being. Despite the mermaid’s many efforts, her love is ultimately rejected by the prince, and she ends her days as sea foam upon the waves.
The article claims that Andersen’s love for Collin could never be fulfilled because Andersen was a mermaid, and Collin a man. This parallel between Andersen and the mermaid sparks something in Noah Holtegaard.
Jeg håber du kan elske en som mig (I Hope You Can Love Someone Like Me) transforms Andersen’s fairy tale, as Holtegaard creates his own story of a magical encounter between a merman and a human prince. Holtegaard’s tale of the merman is a story of passionate love between two individuals, but at the same time also a story about transness and of a profound longing to become someone one can finally love. In this longing, the merman is vulnerably held by the prince and unlike Andersen’s tale, hope is born, while the fear of dissolving into sea foam is washed away.
With Noah Holtegaard, a toe is carefully dipped into the water, marking the threshold just before leaping in with the whole body. Holtegaard’s play with the mermaid symbolism and the fairy tale serves as a reminder of the magic and beauty of transition, in a world where transness is often portrayed as something painful and costly.
Love is the foundation of Andersen’s fairy tale, yet it remains unfulfilled. In Holtegaard’s story of the merman and the human prince, the narrative is turned upside down: the merman is loved because of his true self, not in spite of it. Grief and fragility remain present, but in Holtegaard’s universe, love always outweighs them all.
2023
Udstillingsstedet Q, København
+Rum46, Århus
Through anime, ceremonial rituals, and the aforementioned glitter dust, Holtegaard explores the emotions, thoughts, and experiences that young trans people may have while searching for their identity. Identifying as non-binary, Holtegaard has spent the past few years working with their own transgender identity through art, and this exhibition marks the end of an era in Holtegaard’s personal life. The works shown in the exhibition are the last Holtegaard will produce before starting hormone treatment.
dengang jeg blev mig takes the audience through a three-part narrative inspired by Holtegaard’s own life and experiences, accompanied by a soundscape created for the exhibition by queer musician Christian Høgh.
With its playful approach, the exhibition highlights the magical aspects of being a young trans person discovering their true identity. The viewer is invited to enter the enchantment that can arise when breaking free from society’s normative expectations and unfolding one’s wings. dengang jeg blev mig is thus an opportunity to step behind Holtegaard’s eyes and become spellbound.
2021-2023
nomadic platform
The project BUZZ is an experiment where Holtegaard's head becomes an exhibition platform, with art made with hair dye, scissors, and a buzz cutter. With this project, the exhibiting artist now has to think about what it means to exist in my queer body when making their work.
BUZZ explores the relationship between body, identity, and art, questioning where the exhibition begins and ends. The project follows a collaborative and intimate artistic process where art lives through a body moving in public space.
2021
Aalborg
The project explored how nature could be experienced in new ways through culture and fictional narrative. Holtegaard was interested in how a compelling story could keep a place alive. The works drew inspiration from Nordic myths and television series about the forest, as well as from contemporary environmental movements. He was engaged with how digital technologies could help us rethink the world we inhabit.
The artificial nature was presented as a cultural event, using the same aesthetic strategies employed by cultural institutions. Through posters, bus screens, and advertising displays. The project raised questions about the modern urban individual’s relationship to nature, the cultivation of the Danish landscape, and the relationship between nature and culture.
The works could be found on information screens at the library, at the health centre, and in Nordjyllands Trafikselskab buses, in poster frames at Nordkraft, on the information screen at Nordkraft, and on posters throughout Aalborg.
Holtegaardnoah@gmail.com
@noahholtegaard
Noah Holtegaard (b. 1999) primarily works digitally with media such as image manipulation, digital weaving, CNC milling, and animation. Rooted in historical research, his work engages with queerness and minority narratives, examining how histories are constructed and how new realities can be imagined.
2019 - 2022 HDK-Valand, Göteborg Universitet, BFA, afd. Fine Arts, Göteborg, Sverige
Jeg ønskede aldrig at såre nogen
Nikolaj Kunsthal, København (solo)
Jeg ønskede aldrig at såre nogen
Roskilde Festival (offentligt kunstværk)
Jeg ønskede aldrig at såre nogen
Grasp Festival (offentligt kunstværk)
Jeg ønskede aldrig at såre nogen
Center for mental sundhed og Kunst, København (solo)
Homecoming,
SKAL contemporary, Skagen (solo)
Scener,
Den frie udstllingsbygning, København
Exlibris,
Frederikshavn Kunstmuseum, Frederikshavn
Afgang, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, København, DK
Wholly Absorbed, ODP3, København, DK
2024
4.48 dysphoria, CPH:DOX, København, DK
Extralys, Den Frie Udstillingsbygning, København, DK
Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Berlin, DE
Vierte Welle Film Festival, Berlin, DE
Rundgang, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi, København, DK
A New Perspective, O Days Festival, København, DK
100 års fejring af diversiteten, Udstillingsstedet Q, København, DK
2023
Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Paris, FR
The New Subject, Kunsthal Nord, Aalborg, DK
Juxtapose Art Fair, Aarhus, DK
Skattejagt, Sydhavn Station, København, DK
Efterglød, Sydhavn Station, København, DK
2022
Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling, Den Frie Udstillingsbygning, København, DK
Sexualia vol. II, Demokratiets Hus, København, DK
Hearing Itself, Experimentálna inštitúcia, Trenčín, SK
Fruits, Open Out, Tromsø, NO
Platform for en usikker fremtid, Lokale, København, DK
Galleri Vala, Hälsingland, SE
Move Me, Film Stationen, København, DK
Rugged Terrain Confident Stride, Konstepedemin, Göteborg, SE
2021
Amnesi, Aalborg Kommunes Kunstfond, Aalborg, DK
ctrl + z og ctrl + v, Immaterial Lake, Tversted, DK
Restless Garden, Botaniska trädgården, Göteborg, SE
Lavendler og Grønne nelliker, Walking Landscapes, Aalborg, DK
Luxury Items, luxuryitems.tumblr.com (online)
Let’s Take This Offline, Swedbank, Göteborg, SE
Tid, Blixa publication, Aalborg, DK
2020
Den Nye Virkelighed, København, DK
Sex Cave, Konstepedemin, Göteborg, SE
Technical Bodies – Bodies Technical, Kvindemuseet, Aarhus, DK
Där Du Står, Gislaved Kunsthall, Gislaved, SE
2019
on stage#2, Vækstlag 9000, Aalborg, DK
Thrills, Big Shark, Aalborg, DK
Resort, Artroom 1000fryd, Aalborg, DK
Vi gör konst på den här platsen, Galleri Valand, Göteborg, SE
2018
Aalborg Surreal 4, Aalborg, DK
Deep Sea Diver, Big Shark, Aalborg, DK
2017
Bgk udstilling, Kunsten Museum of Modern Art, Aalborg, DK
Bgks mislykkede udstilling, Kunsthal Nord, Aalborg, DK
2016
Catch 16, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, DK
2015
Bgk Udstilling, Budolfi Kirke, Aalborg, DK
DSR, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi (2022– 2024)
Kunsthal Nord, advisory board (2021–2023)
Equality Representative, Göteborg Universitet (2021–2022)
Aalborg Artist’s Association (2020– )
Nordjyllands Kunstnerværksted (2018–2019)
Last Updated 02.03.26