While the major art institutions were affected by corona shutdowns, cancellations and restrictions, visual artist Frodo Mikkelsen succeeded last year in opening a completely new space for contemporary art, far from the main strip of art life in the big cities.
Kunsthal Thy, as the exhibition venue is called, is among the nominees for BKF prize Artist-run Exhibition Places of the Year 2021.
The art gallery is housed in a 30 m2 conservatory adjacent to the artist's own home and studio in the North Jutland village of Østerild. Here, in a thatched country house on Gl. Aalborgvej 6, where Frodo Mikkelsen has lived since he and his family moved to Thy from Copenhagen's South Harbor in 2019.
Visual artist and art gallery director Frodo Mikkelsen. Photo: Bo Lehm, North Jutland.
“I really missed art and culture in the local area after we moved here. Now the Statens Museum for Kunst has recently established a branch here, so little more is happening. But otherwise it's as if interest in art stops at Herning," says Frodo Mikkelsen, who with Kunsthal Thy especially wants to bring contemporary art to a new, local audience:
"If I can convince the town's butcher or master mason to stop by and experience our exhibitions, I am happy. And it has actually succeeded a couple of times already," says Frodo Mikkelsen, who a little over a year ago decided to create the space for contemporary art that he, as a newly moved Thybo himself, missed in the local area.
Jasper Sebastian Stürup: Glass Moon. Art Gallery Thy 2021.
From Brooklyn to Thy
And there is a short way from thought to action when it comes to artists' self-organized exhibition spaces. With a grant from last year's corona pool for artistic summer activities, Kunsthal Thy became a reality in August 2020. Kunsthal Thy's first exhibition, NYC-Thy, featured works by Frodo Mikkelsen himself and colleague Birgitte Søvsø. The exhibition was supposed to have been shown at a gallery in Brooklyn, New York, but was postponed due to the corona shutdown.
Since then, the small art gallery has shown works by a large number of significant Danish and international contemporary artists, including Camilla Thorup, Fie Norsker, Jon Stahn, Hanne Ravn Hermansen and Claes Otto Jennow. Not to forget the American draftsman Paul Brainard and sculptor Henrik Westergaard from Frøstrup in North Jutland.
Kunsthal Thy's current exhibition, Glass Moon, has just opened with works by painter Jasper Sebastian Stürup and will be on display until 14 July 2021. And the audience has welcomed the new, North Jutland budding of the artist-driven exhibition life, says Frodo Mikkelsen:
Henrik Westergaard: Sitka's Heart. Art Gallery Thy 2020.
The artists' own choices
"The audience is both locals and tourists who, e.g. rolls past Kunsthal Thy on the way to or from the nearby Kirsten Kjærs Museum. And we get a very positive response. I think people are a little surprised to find new exciting contemporary art out here.”
The artists whose works are shown in the art gallery are chosen by Frodo Mikkelsen based on his own personal taste:
"These are artists who I think do interesting things, and who I don't necessarily know personally," he says, who himself has exhibited extensively at galleries at home and abroad, e.g. in New York, the past several years.
He points out that the artists' own exhibition venues constitute an important free space for artistic development, precisely because the exhibitions are created solely based on a committed, artistic curiosity and interest:
"Here we have the freedom to do and show what we want - without having to think about money or earnings. Kunsthal Thy is 100% non-profit. If the public wants to buy some of the works we show, they must contact the artists, because we do not have sales exhibitions. There are enough commercial gallerists out there.”
Photo at top: Top shelf. Kunsthal Thy 2021. Works by Fie Norsker, Camilla Thorup, Louise Gaarmann, Jon Stahn and others.
Hanne Ravn Hermansen. Deep Forest. Art Gallery Thy 2021.