It all started with a poster. This one was made of linoleum print at Hans Vingaards Officin.

1984 - 1986
Already in 1984 I opened a small gallery called Det Lille Galleri 109 at Vinkelvej 109 in Brunshåb. It happened by using the garage as the show room. By that point in time, I worked myself as a teacher at Bjergnæsskolen. Besides teaching in trampoline and tumbling, I taught the students how to to ceramics. Little by little a lot of ceramic pieces was made, and was included in Galleri 109. Along with the ceramic exhibitors, locally acknowledged artists exhibited as well: Johs. Bæch, Lasse Windslev, Frank and Gerda Buchraitz, Ole Weiss.

1986 – 1987
During the christmas days in 1985 I met up with Hans Henrik Jacobsen and Tove Villadsen at Viborg Library. We discussed to look at the opportunities for starting a new gallery. The initiative concluded with  an opening of Galleri Wi located at the corner between Sct. Mogens Gade and Sct. Mathias Gade. This gallery presented a lineup of more upcoming artists: Poul Anker Bech, Peter Martensen, John Olsen, Lis Andersen, Klavs Nørbæk, Felix Pedersen.

1. oktober 1987 – 1992
It is indeed a challenging situation when passionated people come together to elaborate on their artistic and economical approach. Therefore, we chose to part in 1987 and move on separately. October the 1st 1987, Galleri NB was established a one-man-business. The address was Sct. Mikkels Gade 23 and the space was 30 m2 and was absolutely manageable. One year later, the shop next to the gallery was included with the basement making space for both exhibitions and depot.  
More of the artists residing Galleri Wi, exhibited here and many more joined. In 1991the gallery got the opportunity to exhibit one of the decade's greatest names; Robert Jacobsen, which coursed a huge amount of attention and revenues. This paved the ground for settling in an even bigger gallery.

1992 - 1997 

Across the street, Sparekassen Kronjylland was located in a yard called Wendelins Pakhus. The space needed a renovation, and they asked the architect, Thomas Meedom Bæch, to come up with some templates on how to sustain this space worthy of preservation, also wondering if the tendency could be usable for a gallery. Sparekassen's headache was resolved the day that Thomas Meedom Bæch moved into the rooftop and Galleri NB arranged the space on the ground floor and 1st floor. The gallery opened Saturday the 22nd of August 1992.  
Up until the opening I worked parttime as a teacher in Viborg, but in the Fall, I decided to become a gallerist fulltime. The amount of exhibitions and thereby artists expanded. During the first years, I exhibited Henrik Have, Anne Vilsbøll, Knud Odde, Finn Mickelborg, Peter Hentze, Niels Sylvest, Jørgen Jakobsen despite more artists as previously mentioned.
The gallery became associated with its first staff members, Kaj Pedersen in the frame factory and Klaus Mortensen as gallerist.       
In 1993 the first seed to fund an Art Union was planted. First and foremost because the gallery wished to establish a support web that would contribute in making activities relating to Gallery NB while enjoying the art represented here. In 1993, 30 members was a part of the Art Union called Kunstforeningen NB. Today the union has 230 members coming from all over the country.  Still, the art is central, and cosy initiatives are added - among activities are travels out of the country including visits in artists' studios, in house activities including food, wine and art, talks and even concerts.      
In the middle of the 90's we had a supply of artists coming from abroad. The artistic horizon grew as the gallery began its collaboration with Kjell Nupen from Norway, Trondur Patursson and Kári Svensson from the Faroe Islands, Vilmantas from Lithuania and Paul Smulders from the Netherlands. This international supply of young artists had a vast importance for the coming years. 

        
La Galerie Danoise 1999 - 2003

Maria Lund
One day in the Fall of 1998, I randomly stumbled upon a small advertisement in JyllandsPosten, where an anonymous person was looking for a collaborator to launch a gallery opening in Paris. Behind this advertisement was Maria Lund - a young Danish woman, with a wide interest for art and with experience from living in France already. One phone call later, we made an agreement about establishing our gallery somewhere in Paris. After thorough investigations of locations suitable for a gallery, we discovered that the best location would be the Marais district in 3. arrondissement. After some coincidences and a punch of luck, we succeeded in renting a space at Rue de Turenne 75.      
La Galerie Danoise opened the 11th of January 1999 featuring Poul Anker Bech. After the opening followed exhibitions made by artists Kjell Nupen, Paul Smulders, Vilmantas, Poul Anker Bech, Elle-Mie Ejdrup Hansen, Peter Carlsen. 
However, Danish and French culture is a difficult mix. The French people has a profound focus on their national artists, and a wish to talk to the people from their own culture at the same time. Therefore, Maria Lund and I agreed that by the year 2003, she took over Galerie Danoise, and ever since she has directed the gallery in the name Galerie Maria Lund, which today is still located at Rue de Turenne.

        GAS
 
When Galleri NB managed two branches, there was an emerging need for using a complete database in order to managing art works, artists and customers. The database is called GAS - Gallery Administration System - and is today an indispensable part of the daily operations for a modern gallery. GAS has been growing strong, and today we also invite other professional galleries to invest in this improved administration system. 

Susanne Kam Kristensen
1st of April 2000, when also Galleri NB was harmed by the financial crisis, I was in need of a more profound management of both economics and administration. For this reason I was scouting for a skilled and reliable person who could lead accountancy, budget planning and administration. This person happened to be Susanne Kam Kristensen, who was accountant with experience from a private business. At the same time she had an interest for art, and we got along. It was a natural step in the right direction for the gallery to hire Susanne as the chief of administrations - and later on partner in business. 

Roskilde Gasværk

          
12th of January 2002 we launched Galleri NB Roskilde. This happened because we were offered to buy Galleri 108 at Roskilde Gasværk, close to Vikingeskibs Museet. Gasværket had a capacity of 500 m2 and the rustic rooms were at our disposal and very suitable for various exhibitions as well as exciting activities. Here, we exhibited emerging artists, amongst those were: Hans Pauli Olsen, Steen Larsen, Jacob Brostrup, Mette Rishøj and Frederik Lindskov.       
Now and then the exhibitions had an enormous amount of attention. We can never forget the opening of Vilmantas 25th September 2004 in company with former Princess Alexandra who came to open the exhibition. The opening happened only two weeks after Prince Joachim and Princess Alexandra had parted, which made it a huge media event.  

Relocation to Sct. Mathias Gade 14

2005 - 2012
The 26th of November 2005 was the day we opened a brand new gallery in Sct. Mathias Gade 14. After a total renovation of the previous Mathias Pharmacy, we got 630 m2 specially designed at our disposal. This gave us an opportunity to split the gallery into three sections; MAIN, CENTER and NBeX Project. Moreover, we got more space for administration, bookstore, framework workshop, load-in and load-out as well as a big storage room. 
In 2011, very generously, we got a space at our disposal from Landsforeningen Liv & Død at Nikolaj Pl. 27 in Copenhagen. This opportunity came for us with a chance to present our artists in the capitol. Even though the distance between Roskilde and Copenhagen is 35 km. As a consequence we concluded one location of the gallery and moved out of Roskilde Gasværk the 1st of June 2012.

2013
The 1st of August 2013 Galleri NB København went through some change and became a showroom rather than a profound gallery. What it meant was that the gallery offered to open after appointment only, despite at special occasions where normal access was permitted. Many have asked if it meant that we left Copenhagen. This was not the case. Rather we focused all of our resources at our strengths: consultancy and commission works. We are continuously present in Copenhagen, exactly with a strengthened focus on outgoing activities within out portfolio. As a final consequence, Galleri NB was upgraded in regards to making exhibitions powerful enough to attract guests from Denmark and at the same time welcoming the whole world. 

2014 - 2016
After difficult times in the year of 2013, we had the feeling that new seeds were planted and optimism returned within society. Medium sized and larger businesses finally got their revenues, and bank deposits were scaling up. At this point in time we hired Peter Frøstrup the 1st of April. His responsibility area was commissions and extern sales. Peter Frøstrup worked at the gallery until April where he took a position as department manager at Vestjysk Bank. 

Limbo

After uncertain times regarding the daily operations at Nikolai Plads, something wonderful happened that by October 2014 until February 2016 we made an agreement with Sophus and Charlotte Neel Ritto and Begravelse Danmark, with the ambition of creating a brand new concept for promotion within the arts. We named it LIMBO - NBeX Art Venue. Sophus and Charlotte had each a studio inside of the gallery. This were exciting times, and the unexpected was mostly welcomed. 

In the years after 2017, the customers behaviour changed remarkably. We came to ascertain the tendency of maintaining one large gallery in opposition to several outposts - despite the geography. It is a distinction between walking into a gallery without any preparation and opposite to know why you choose to walk into this gallery. 
The internet seemed to get a grip in the audiance. Later on, Covid-19 made it difficult for the audience to access openings and visit galleries in general. So it came to be homepages and SoMe platforms whoch targeted communication. The physical gallery was threatened. We had to adapt to the future. What we did was to create super sharp exhibitions showing artists in solo shows and also great group shows. In order to provide the audience with a improved and qualified impression of the exhibitions and each single art piece, we initiated a close collaboration with XploR XR, which is leading the scene in terms of Virtual Reality and Extended Reality. Together we developed 3D scannings and notations, which enabled the audience to explore the virtuel tours within all the exhibitions. More information was available for them, as they could read facts and the artists comments for each art piece. 

This case became a succesful one because of the integration with Artpilot.com - an application that we developed in order to meet the future with its challenges and requirements. 

Artpilot

After having deveopled GAS for many years, we knew that time was right to make progress in the system. In the years 2017 to 2020 It-pilot programmed Artpilot.
In collaboration with It-pilot, we transmuted GAS and made Artpilot.com thanks to our collected experiences with GAS. At the same time, we developed a list of more relevant features, so Artpilot became an even more usable tool.  
The new system came with the opportunity to let more users make use of its advanced features. It became relevant to pass this on to other galleries, artists and art collections who worked with the matter in a different context. Through a subscription, we sustained a price friendly solution with possibilities for receiving updates via Artpilot. 

In 2021 we launched Artpilot.com with this mantra:
Artpilot.com is a complete management system, which handles all relevant operations that is needed for galleries, artists and art collections on a daily basis. 
Artpilot.com is in particular a competitive system and comes in three scalable versions which meet the needs of its users. 

The goal is that thousands of artists and galleries will welcome Artpilot.com

NB Lounge

During the Corona lockdown in the Winter 2020/21 I got the idea to make a special room with the purpose of hosting meetings with an exclusive selection of wine and liquor. The room was meant to be an universe in itself. No windows but sliding doors and ventilation. 
Today, NB Lounge is a discrete and exclusive section in Galleri NB. 
NB Lounge is furnished with a long table made of oak, a 65" Oled LG TV, bookcase for wine, bookcase for liquor and of course art.
From now on, NB Lounge can contain meetings with a capacity of 12 participants.
If the wish is to have dinner during meetings, it is possible to have catering made by Restaurant For Enden af Gaden. Naturally the wine can be purchased directly from our supply in the lounge. 
Wines and liquors are in commission from Topvine.dk, and you can buy the bottles directly in NB Lounge. Although, if a purchase of more than 6 bottles are needed, those can be ordered directly through Topvine.dk's webshop, who will then send the order directly to your door. 

This timeline of 34 years tells somehow the story of Galleri NB. It has never been dull. Selection of and collaboration with artists, planning of exhibitions internally and externally has been high on the agenda always. Without the support from our customers, we would never be able to go on as an independent gallery for so many years. This counts both for private customers as well as public and private businesses, which has purchased art and commission works in great varieties. 

Team NB

I would like to introduce you to our team. 

Located in Viborg, the heart of Jutland, in great distance to Copenhagen, we are conscious about doing our very best is crucial in order to attract the best customers and with that making ourselves interesting for out guests. In alignment with this focus, our team is made up of professionals working as fulltime gallerists and specialists contributing with their competences. 

Susanne Kam Kristensen is my business partner. Educated as an accountant with a remarkable interest for art, her primary responsibilities are administration and accountancy. It is a gift for the gallery and everyone around her, because Susanne knows everything about how to handle invoices, depreciations, fees on Danish and international artists, transportations and shipment in terms of toll - basically all those things that makes it difficult sometimes to navigate within the art market, she handles. 

Hanne Simony
is the receptionist of the gallery. As well she is in charge of internal sales og communication.

Hans Ole Rasmussen

Hans Ole Busk

Hans Ole Rasmussen and Hans Ole Busk are in charge of Galleri NB's Framing Workshop and mounting of art works. 
They handles orders of framing for anyone who wishes quality frames for reasonable prices. Primary their tasks are framing lithographies, photographies, paintings as well as adding the right finish to the art works if needed. 

I, the undersigned, is directing the gallery as a head manager, and I too set the artistic direction for the gallery. I have the overall responsibility in terms of contact with artists and thereby the flow of exhibitions in Galleri Nb and NBeX project. Aside of that, I am available every Wednesday at 17 hosting the weekly event called Kunst & Mad.

As a team it is crucial, that we can help each other so that the artists and customers can benefit from our efforts. Therefore sharing knowledge and inspiration is crucial for a dynamic gallery. Our focus is to optimize the quality of art, knowledge and service. We always aim to progress despite of the times we live in. We always wish to share pur passion for valuable art with as many people as possible.  

I owe a special thanks to artists, customers, collaborators and staff. Without each og them, this would not have been possible.