Galleri Susanne Ottesen was founded by Susanne Ottesen in Copenhagen in 1983. The gallery emerged as one of a small number of pioneering Danish galleries that were looking to champion a generation of local and international artists who were transforming the way art was devised, made and exhibited. Over the past forty years, Galleri Susanne Ottesen has built on this foundation, identifying and supporting succeeding generations of artists, each with a radical and distinctive approach to the possibilities of art.

Spending the early 80s travelling around with a suitcase in hand, selling prints in Europe and the USA, Susanne Ottesen opened the gallery in her apartment on Store Kongensgade in 1983. In 1989, the gallery relocated to the present-day space at Gothersgade 49, looking out over Kongens Have.