About Gallery Apoteket
Gallery Apoteket is an artist-driven gallery founded in May 2022, managed by artists Anni and Nils Östbrant.
Our aim is to foster novel ideas and curiosity. The gallery provides a space for sharing knowledge, discussing contemporary art, and exploring topics related to our exhibitions. It serves as a meeting place for artists, cultural workers, and visitors.
We are showing art from Gotland and other countries around the Baltic Sea region, with the goal of connecting people across borders. Apoteket represents artists regardless of their education, gender, age, or other criteria.
The building housing the gallery was once a herbal pharmacy, "ett örtapotek." The gallery’s name, Apoteket, reflects this history and its connotations as a place where people can visit to enhance their health and well-being, gain new energy, and feel rejuvenated.
The gallery space is located in Roma Kungsgård, an old crown estate in the heart of Gotland. Today, the manor functions as a cultural center with attractions such as the Roma Abbey ruins, a museum, a café, and handicraft shops. The ruins of the abbey, "Sancta Maria de Gutnalia," were built in the 12th century by Cistercian monks. For more information about Roma Kungsgård, visit romakungsgard.se
The frontside of the gallery (c) Karl Melander
Details of the Gallery Space
The exhibition space is 34 square meters, with three windows and a door. It is situated in a stone building with no heating system. During colder months, the gallery may experience some humidity, which can affect the artworks. The walls are not entirely white or smooth and bear traces of previous use. As the mansion is listed as a cultural heritage site, we cannot leave any marks, repaint the walls, or use nails for hanging the exhibition. Artworks can be placed on the floor, hung from ceiling beams, or from iron pipes attached to the roof, meaning they will hang approximately 10-15 cm from the walls.
Please see the exhibition pictures, groundplan and visit our instagram for to get better understanding of the space.
Installation
The installation time is two days. If artworks are sent to Gallery Apoteket, the gallery managers will install them based on the artist’s instructions. If the artist is present, they can install the works together with the gallery manager. The gallery covers the cost of hanging materials.
Commission and Rental Costs
The gallery takes a 35% commission on each sold artwork. The rental fee for the gallery is 1000 SEK per week, which is deducted from the 35% commission on each sold artwork.
The exhibition space (c) Karl Melander, the exhibition by Kallirroi Ioannidou
Working Guidelines: Theme “Warehouse”
The art world, like many other parts of modern society, is driven by overconsumption and overproduction. Consequently, the world is filled with various types of warehouses stocked with products. Art buyers, sellers, and museums have developed strategies for storing artworks to increase their value, with some works eventually being exhibited or sold again. Unfortunately, the worst-case scenario is that artworks are simply moved from one storage space to another.
Artists also have their own storage spaces for unsold artworks, influenced by the marketing standard that artworks should be exhibited only once. As a result, artists are often compelled to produce new works continually.
Gallery Apoteket aims to exhibit these stored artworks, giving them new life and honoring their true value. This approach contributes to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly art world, reducing the need to produce large quantities of new artworks. Our vision is for artists to have more time to focus on each individual piece, with the goal of permanent display or extended exhibition periods.
We encourage all artists exhibiting at Gallery Apoteket to revisit and refresh their stored artworks. As an artist, you have the freedom to alter, improve, remake, and combine your stored pieces. The exhibition should be your own, offering a space to present your themes, ideas, and concepts.
We have created the theme “Warehouse” as a subtle guiding principle for all events and exhibitions at Gallery Apoteket. It is not intended to restrict the artist’s right to curate their own exhibition. We hope to maintain an open dialogue with every artist or group about their creative process and are prepared to make exceptions based on individual exhibition needs.
Are you interested in exhibiting at our gallery?
We accept applications via email. Each application should include images of your works, a CV, and a presentation of yourself and your art. Applications can be submitted in English, Swedish, or Finnish.
Please send your portfolio in PDF format.
If you have any question, please contact us ︎ galleriapoteket@gmail.com