Galleri Nexus: Contemporary meets classic at Southern Jutland’s largest art gallery

As one of the largest art galleries in the Danish region of South Jutland, Galleri Nexus facilitates the intersection of hyper-local and international art, bridging classic, modern and contemporary expressions.

When Galleri Nexus opened in 2007, it was about as off-piste as a Danish gallery could get. “Having a gallery on the outskirts is different to having a gallery on Bredgade in Copenhagen, or in the centre of Aarhus. A few years ago I was the only full-time professional gallery in the area and, even now, there aren’t many,” explains the gallery’s founder Kent Lauritsen.

An art dealer and auction-house consultant by trade, Lauritsen has amassed the world’s largest collection of Southern-Jutland art at Galleri Nexus. Today, the gallery is fully online, its portfolio representing a meeting point for the local and the global, blending Danish with international and contemporary with classic works.

“Nobody else specialises in the art of southern Jutland,” he says. “The collection at Galleri Nexus encompasses lesser-known local talents as well as big names like Franciska Clausen – one of Denmark’s leading Avant-Gardist painters from Aabenraa, ten kilometres from here.”

Left: Prelude plaster sculpture by Saskia Sutherland. Right: Pumpkin painting by Conor Walton.

A meeting place for people and art

In conversation with its collection of Danish art, Galleri Nexus exhibits an oeuvre of international artists from South Korea, Ireland, England, Germany and beyond. The name borrows from the Latin word ‘Nexus’, meaning ‘connection’ or ‘link’. “It refers not only to the gallery’s location near ancient cross-roads, but to its ambition of being a place where people and quality art meet and connect,” explains Lauritsen.

“We could show only international Avant Garde but that wouldn’t have connected us to the local public. We juxtapose the contemporary with the classic, so our collection is less speculative, closer to the audience.”

He points to works by Wicklow-based Irish artist Conor Walton, recent additions to Galleri Nexus. “Walton’s work is almost the opposite of Avant Garde. It’s reflective, intuitive and with integral technical quality,” he says. “The bottom line is that we seek to present quality.”

Other contemporary work on display includes that of Dan Thuesen – semi-abstract pastoral landscapes in misty pastel tones, and Danish-American artist Saskia Sutherland’s explorative sculpture works. Meanwhile, classic Danish works from the 19th and 20th century present rustic street scenes, still life and evocative land and seascapes.

“Good art should talk to you,” says Lauritsen. “And that’s what you’ll find at Galleri Nexus.”

Kent Lauritsen (left) and Conor Walton in Conor’s studio in Wicklow, Ireland.

Web: www.nexuswebshop.dk