Previous exhibitions

He gave up a promising medical degree after two years to finish building the boat and work in an advertising agency. Later, he studied graphic design with a focus on painting, built another boat and, at the age of thirty, went to Spain for a year to follow in the footsteps of Francisco Goya. Back in the north, he became a successful painter, a happy husband and the proud father of two daughters.

For years, he drew political illustrations for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Sonntagszeitung newspapers, taught illustration and painting at the University of Applied Sciences and accompanied sea voyages as a painter. In 2017, back surgery forced him to give up his profession. He moved to the yacht insurance agency Pantaenius, where he developed the company’s globally used visual language. He is still happy and busy with this, but is increasingly drawn back to the easel, which is why we will see a small exhibition of his work at Strynø in 2026.

The author Søren Ulrik Thomsen writes in his latest book: “…the past has begun to fall in front of me.” I very much feel that it is also the future that is falling. Every day I see things that could make me cry all day long — and sometimes they do.

The way the world looks, and the way power behaves, confirms the transience of everything — and that is what this exhibition is about. It is, of course, also about the gratitude that must follow in the wake of an awareness of transience. Nothing quite puts an otherwise insurmountable everyday problem into perspective like transience — in the sense that: “maybe it — or you — isn’t all that important after all, in the grand scheme of things.”

This exhibition should therefore be seen as an expression of what my quirky mind may be preoccupied with. You’ll find both old and new pieces, often made from things that have also had “another life” — various perishable materials now placed in a new context.

Many of the exhibits are representative of the boatbuilders who amassed an extraordinary amount of knowledge through their skills as boat designers, builders and restorers, namely Torsden and Ib Ivar Dahl, Kristian Fribo, Ib Nielsen and Tobias Bauneborg Nielsen who recently built a two-masted Smakkerjolle in Svendborg.

The drawings made by Torsten Ivar Dahl are a product of a fertile mind influenced by the historic boat designers Aage Utzon and Colin Archer. In themselves they are the art of the draughtsman and their antiquity pushes them more into the domain of artscapes. The deliberations, thinking and convictions of the man are evidence of his commitment to his profession and understanding of the world on water.

Kristian Fribo designed and built his boat Rosaline over an eight year period (1980–1987) at his home in northern Fyn. The transcript of an interview with him and Annette, his wife, describes the practicalities and thinking behind the design and building process.

The collection witnesses the personal interests of Strynøbers, without whom this exhibition would not have been possible. A big thank you goes out to Lone Anesen, her son Laurits and Agnete and her father-in-law Ib Ivar Dahl for so many of the exhibits associated with Torsden Ivar Dahl and the boat models; to Ole Mortansøn for his inspiration, a photo and description of his Aalborgjolle and a painting by Ib Nielsen; Asbjørn Bøg Petersen for his loft finds of a beautiful antique boat model made on the island and an antique yacht made from Agate; Ib Nielsen for the exhibit about his building of Selma at the Øhavets Smakkercentret; Søren Højbjerg for the model of a boat he made from his shoe, aged 8 and a ship made of corn horn and bought by his mother many years ago; and not least Skjold Christensen for a photo of his grandfather and sailing colleagues and for his help with exhibits from the Strynø Archives.

We are also most grateful to the institutions which safeguard the culture of wooden boats in our community – The Øhavets Smakkercentret and Denmark’s Museum For Lystsejlads for the loan of exhibits which identify with the workmanship of boatbuilders.

Søren describes his art practice:

“I was born in Vendsyssel in 1959, and lived there until 89. I have used my hands creatively all my life, when I was a child for various creative experiments, later for work, conversions of e.g. the power plant, etc. I am a trained toolmaker, which means that iron and steel are familiar materials to me. As an artist, I am self-taught, but have participated in various courses and workshops, e.g. a year at the Svendborg art school.

Many of my works are based on the materials I find. They often lead me in the direction of an idea or sketch, depending on where they come from. It can be slate from a church tower, a piece of Ambrosius oak, a stone, a road sign, etc. It can also be in the reverse order: I get an idea for a shape and then find the materials for the sculpture.

I am a political person who is concerned with the world around me and how the face of power appears in different places. I try to express my thoughts about this in many of my works. Here, the materials are found specifically so that I can illustrate and ask questions about a given political agenda or problem.

I primarily work three-dimensionally, but in recent years have also started to experiment more with images. I am inspired by materials, by nature, other people’s perspectives and by the world situation. Regardless of which works I am working on, they will always be connected to me, my thoughts and feelings, which is expressed in this exhibition as the title says: ‘Maybe just a feeling’.”

June 2023.

At the opening we had between 40 and 50 visitors to the gallery, which endorses our view it is here as a resource for islanders and visitors to meet, contribute and bring something new and stimulating into their lives.

The exhibits range from an account of a father’s ordeal on one day during the Second World War, to a description of making a spoon from the wood of a shipwreck in New Zealand, and many others. Contributors include Erik Schreiner Hanse, Susanne Hansen, Lise Thillemann Sørensen, John Sørensen, Birgit Bergrensen, Dorte Quist Gregersen, Mikael Kian Hansen, Jeremy Cosmo Davies, Wojtek Zochowski, Donna Maria Hurford, Elisabeth Gregersen, Søren Højbjerg & Helle Elværket, Marianne Schmidt Lund, Birthe Groth, Cecilie Beck Gordon & Gabriel Ladd Gordon, Elinor Meilvang, Martina Dani and Arne Ramhøj.

So do come and visit the exhibition which runs from May 5 – 28. Galleri Tegn is open from Thursday to Sunday 10.00–17.00, or by prior appointment. Welcome!

As an island we are surrounded by the sea. During the summer we swim amongst jellyfish and enjoy watching children catching crabs. The island also maintains a large population of spiders of all different shapes, sizes and colours. In the city of Strynø there are a number of trees which are protected – the children have visited, taken photographs and painted those trees.

Every year at the end of March, the nation turns out to pick up discarded litter along roadsides, the beaches and public spaces. This year the Treasure Chest children visited the Strynø coast and collected all sorts of flotsam, found amongst the tangles of eelgrass washed up on our shores. Their beautiful display is poignant and reassures us that they are being made aware of the effects of pollution at an early age.

Our thanks to the children, teachers and all who worked so hard to make such an exciting and enjoyable exhibition. We would love to host a similar exhibition every year.

He writes: “My artistic expression is nourished by the place I am in – whether it is a forest near Herning, my studio on Drejø, a street in Rome or a parking lot at the ferry landing to Strynø. I observe and collect things! The goal is to visualise it into an artistic expression on paper, through photography, collages, objects, painting, etc.

I observe, collect and document the traces that we humans leave. The visual expression is on the threshold between irrationality and the compulsion of scientific classification, and not least the aesthetics of decay. This is how my brain works. It never rests!

Even if only a fraction of my observations and collections end up as finished works, I am fine with that. That is the way it is.”

Steen Kjær Jacobsen, Strynø, June 2022.

The collection was started over forty years ago by Alberto, as he said, because he liked the individual pieces, the people selling them, and he had the money to buy them. The collection, as exhibited, includes Makonde carvings from southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique as figurines, fetishes, and anthropomorphic stools; Kuba textile hangings from the Congo, made of raffia in styles dating back to the 17th century; and Shetani painted carvings, which originated in the mid-1980s in the Tingatinga style after George Lilanga (an established Makonde artist). The Shetani is the spirit embodied in the person or animal, which is interpreted by the artist and often with humour. Shetani are also carved by the Makonde in ebony wood, evoking a spiritual connection to the artist’s abstract interpretation of the subject.

The exhibited collection comes from Mali, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. We thank Kirsten and Alberto for lending Galleri Tegn such well received pieces.

My art practice matured during my MA Contemporary Art studies over ten years ago. I was a bespoke furniture designer and maker and for quite some time I had set aside the more dramatic wood offcuts from which I made sharp-edged sculptural pieces. These were offcuts from an oak bridge, an elliptic clinker built seating arrangement, a Windsor chair or other such project.

It was only in the second year of my course that it dawned on me that all my sculptural output was using offcuts, and so a new journey unfolded in which I was able to define the context of my new found language. It was a spirit discovery which took me into Taoism and the principle of ‘Mutual Arising’. Unlike western belief systems, in the east there is little understanding of what we call ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. In Taoism ‘Mutual Arising’ is figuratively a continuum along which there are many possibilities. There is no singular answer, but more about consideration and reflection through thought and discussion.

The exhibition presents graphite rubbings, acrylic prints, cyanotype photograms, wooden offcuts in transition, and plaster casts. An example is seen in the series of cyanotype photograms using offcuts from a project to design a three legged stackable chair to be used by the congregation in a church – and hence the name Trinity Chair. The conundrum of understanding the work rests with you the viewer. For me, I try to keep it simple – why can’t the photogram print of the Trinity Chair actually be interpreted as ‘the chair’? The Taoist principle of ‘Mutual Arising’ actually allows you to interpret reality in a long, playful, thoughtful and inspiring way. You might not be able to sit on ‘the chair’, but you can allow yourself to be taken on a spiritual journey which interprets it as a chair. That is the prize of art more generally, being open to new thinking.

My passion is materiality and process. To see, hold, touch and feel tactile surfaces. I also have a passion for wooden boats. The workmanship and their understanding of the materials and the processes they follow to design and make something so beautiful and purposeful inspires me. To hear the crusty words of a wooden boatbuilder describe their line of thought, a story, a term or a particular item of purpose defines them – a dying art.

This exhibition covers three distinct periods spent in England, Kenya and now Denmark. There are many cyanotype photograms which were made by exposing the photosensitive quality papers to sunlight. Also two graphite rubbings made in Kenya of Swahili shutters and a dugout canoe made from a mango tree, all on Japanese paper. There are acrylic prints of red snapper fish, following an old Japanese tradition of Gyotaku – as a way for fishermen to keep a record of the fish they caught.

I hope that the show takes you on your own enjoyable journey.”

Jeremy Cosmo Davies, April 2022.