The Fold

J/M Gallery presents 'The Fold' by Helle Johansen-Baker and Giampiero Nanni.

Two artists, one Nordic, one Mediterranean. Different languages, different abstract styles and techniques, different artistic journeys. Yet, two voices that, while remaining distinct, resonate together like a musical counterpoint - a point where latitudes converge to create an intriguing and captivating abstract impression, where surface becomes depth, and flat becomes dimensional: Scandinavian graphic clarity vs. Mediterranean material warmth. Helle's work, with delicate and luminous forms, evoke the clean, essential atmosphere of the North. Giampiero's is rich in texture and matter, and bold in colour, recalling the intensity of the Southern spirit. So, contrast as a unifying orchestrated force.

Helle Johansen-Baker is a process-based artist, mostly self-taught, whose work evolves through intuition, experimentation and response. A vibrant exploration of colour and form lies at the heart of her practice. Driven by a fascination with how colours interact, she seeks to evoke emotion and movement through subtle layering techniques that create depth, texture and a sense of discovery within each piece. Her work is mostly abstract using acrylics, layered with mixed media and collage, creating dynamic compositions that celebrate the interplay of hues and shapes. Most of the work is created on wood panels and larger work is painted on canvas.

Giampiero Nanni’s paintings ask to be felt for their immediate visible texture and chromatic impact. It’s about past and present, reality and nostalgia, decay and shine, condensed in rich, physical surfaces full of gold, copper, rust, anthracite. A tactile, mainly abstract, style, using gesso, acrylic, and other materials, to build surfaces with a palpable presence, made of scars and mending, fragments and erasures, decay and subtractions, absence, fragility, silence. ​Influenced by Art Informel and Arte Povera, with a healthy obsession for Antoni Tàpies and Anselm Kiefer, it was said that Giampiero paints “what silence looks like”. ​Giampiero has exhibited in galleries and art fairs in UK, France and Italy.

The exhibition will be open daily from 10 am - 7 pm. The two artists will be at the gallery all week to meet visitors in person. There will be a cocktail reception to celebrate the opening on 29th October, from 6 pm - 9 pm.