What does it mean to collect art for NextGen's?
This question has become increasingly relevant as a younger generation enters the art market - not only as buyers, but as participants in the wider ecosystem of artists, galleries, institutions, fairs and communities that surround art.
For CHART Journal’s NextGen Collecting series, we spoke with young collectors about how they discovered art, what makes them want to live with it, and how they imagine the art world evolving. Their answers reveal a generation that is not easily defined by a particular taste, medium or collecting strategy.
Instead, what emerges is a different set of relationships: between the digital and the physical, the individual and the community, instinct and knowledge, and collecting as ownership versus participation. Here are six perspectives from the conversations:
“Collecting for me is not only about individual objects, but also about the networks and conversations that form around them.”
Sustainability Specialist and art collector
1. Collecting starts with encounters, not strategies
For many collectors, becoming a collector was not a conscious decision. It began with an encounter: a work seen in the right place, an artist discovered through a friend, a gift, or simply the feeling that something belonged in their lives.
Arif Samaletdin describes his collecting journey as something that “just happened quite naturally through people, friendships, and curiosity.” His first purchase came from a photographer friend, followed by a spontaneous acquisition of a large-scale painting by Jenni Hiltunen. For Lars Veen Uldal, his first purchase at 19 was a photograph by Trine Søndergaard. He describes the work as one he still returns to, because of the personal associations and questions it provoked.
These stories complicate the idea of the collector as someone who enters the market with a predetermined taste or financial plan. Instead, collecting can begin much more simply: with curiosity, proximity and the desire to keep something that has made an impression.
- Collecting may begin with ownership, but it often begins with attention.
Start Collecting with CHART 2026
Photo by Michael Kaack
Alice Folker Gallery at CHART 2026. Part of the Main Section
Photo by Joakim Züger
2. The collection is also a network
Across the interviews, relationships appear again and again as an important part of collecting.
For Lars Veen Uldal, long-term relationships with galleries and other collectors have shaped not only what he buys but how he understands artists and their practices. He describes collecting as being about “the networks and conversations” surrounding individual works. Henrik Kanekrans similarly describes collecting as being part of an “ecosystem” - a way of discovering new things, meeting people and encountering different perspectives. For him, “art is like your bookshelf or your music playlists: it broadcasts who you are.”
This social dimension also appears in Arif Samaletdin's vision of his generation. He describes a move towards networks rather than hierarchies, with collaboration across disciplines and countries becoming increasingly natural.
The collection, then, is not necessarily an isolated accumulation of objects. It can also be understood as a map of relationships: with artists, galleries, friends, institutions and other collectors.
- To collect is increasingly to participate.
3. Instagram is an entry point, not the destination
The routes through which people discover art have changed dramatically. Social media has made artists, exhibitions and collections visible far beyond the traditional spaces of galleries and museums.
Magnús Jóhann Ragnarsson points to social media as a force that has changed how artists are discovered and presented, while also reducing some of the exclusivity traditionally associated with galleries. The home of someone in your social network can suddenly become an informal exhibition space. An artist can be encountered through a post before their work is ever seen in person. A collector can follow a practice as it develops over years.
But none of the interviews suggest that digital access has replaced physical encounters. For Lars Veen Uldal, digital platforms can “open the door”, but deeper understanding still comes through galleries, museums, studio visits and conversations. The physical experience of looking at a work, and discussing it with someone else, remains fundamental. This creates an interesting tension at the heart of NextGen collecting. Discovery may increasingly happen online, but relationships are still built offline.
As Henrik Kanekrans puts it: “Online is the appetiser; visiting studios and galleries is the real deal."
- NextGen's may discover art digitally, but seeing it in person remains central to understanding and collecting it.
CFHILL at CHART 2026. Part of the Main Section
Photo by Joakim Züger
Isaak Fangel at CHART 2026. Part of the Please Notice Section
Photo by Joakim Züger
4. There is no single NextGen taste
The idea of a “NextGen collector” can easily suggest a shared taste: younger collectors buy emerging artists, collect new media, discover everything through Instagram and reject the traditions of previous generations. The interviews suggest something more complicated.
The collectors interviewed have very different tastes and approaches. Some focus strongly on contemporary practices; others are interested in established artists and historical lineages. Some are drawn towards painting and photography, while others are interested in a broader range of media. Lars Veen Uldal questions the assumption that younger collectors are necessarily more open to different media than older generations. Henrik Kanekrans similarly approaches collecting across painting, sculpture, photography and other forms without seeing medium as a generational statement.
What connects these collectors is therefore not necessarily what they collect. It is perhaps more useful to look at how they collect: through curiosity, conversation, networks, personal experience and a willingness to develop their own perspective.
- NextGen's may be less about a shared aesthetic than a shared freedom to create one.
5. The art world needs fewer barriers
Accessibility emerges as one of the clearest questions across the conversations. The traditional art world can be difficult to enter. It has its own language, codes and networks, and new collectors may feel that they need to understand the rules before they are allowed to participate.
Henrik Kanekrans describes the need to engage with the art world without having to develop an “armour”. Magnús Jóhann Ragnarsson argues for a more open attitude towards looking at art, suggesting that you do not need an art history degree to have a meaningful response to a work.
At the same time, Lars Veen Uldal offers a more nuanced perspective: sometimes the greatest barrier is not necessarily structural exclusion, but the perception that the art world is inaccessible; “Preconceptions, rather than doors, are what most often remain closed.”
Lars Veen Uldal points to another dimension of the issue: the need for stronger, more durable communities for younger people interested in art. He argues that patron programmes and institutional structures should rethink how they engage younger audiences, creating spaces for sustained encounters rather than simply offering another form of membership. This is not necessarily about removing expertise. Rather, it is about creating more ways into it. The next generation may be asking the art world to rethink not only who gets to buy art, but who gets to feel that they belong.
- Accessibility is not simply about price. It is also about access to knowledge, relationships and a sense of belonging.
Start Collecting with CHART 2026
Photo by Joakim Züger
6. Collecting is a form of participation
Perhaps the most significant shift is that collecting is increasingly difficult to separate from participation in the wider art world. The collectors interviewed by CHART do not describe their collections simply in terms of assets or objects. They talk about artists they follow, galleries they work with, communities they belong to, exhibitions they visit and conversations that shape their thinking. This reflects a wider discussion currently taking place around the future of art collecting.
Recent writing and research has focused on younger collectors not simply as a new demographic of buyers, but as people potentially changing the structures through which art is discovered, valued and supported.
The story is not simply that younger collectors are replacing older ones or that a new generation has arrived with an entirely new set of rules. The interviews suggest a more fluid transition: some collectors embrace traditional gallery relationships while discovering artists through social media; some combine emerging artists with established practices; some are highly values-driven, while others simply want to live with work they love. Rather than replacing the old model, the next generation may be expanding it.
- Collecting is no longer only about what you own. It is increasingly about how you participate in the culture around what you own.
The conversations with the NextGen collectors reveal a collecting culture that is difficult to reduce to one definition. They discover artists through galleries, friends, exhibitions and social media. They collect paintings, photographs, sculpture and other media. They value instinct, but also knowledge. They embrace digital access while continuing to seek out physical encounters. And while their individual tastes differ, many see collecting as a way of connecting with artists, communities and ideas.
Rather than replacing traditional collecting, the next generation appears to be expanding what collecting can mean: making it more personal, more networked and, potentially, more open.
“Being interested in and collecting art is not vanity, but an important part of being part of a broader artistic community.”
Musician and art collector
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NextGen Collecting: Arif Samaletdin, Helsinki
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NextGen Collecting: Henrik Kanekrans, Stockholm
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NextGen Collecting: Magnús Jóhann Ragnarsson, Reykjavík
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NextGen Collecting: Lars Veen Uldal, Stavanger/Copenhagen
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NextGen Collecting: Jeppe Bruun Fals & Rita Rosa Prates, Copenhagen
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NextGen Collecting: Arif Samaletdin, Helsinki
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NextGen Collecting: Henrik Kanekrans, Stockholm
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NextGen Collecting: Magnús Jóhann Ragnarsson, Reykjavík
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NextGen Collecting: Lars Veen Uldal, Stavanger/Copenhagen
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NextGen Collecting: Jeppe Bruun Fals & Rita Rosa Prates, Copenhagen
