Joana Santamans brings her abstract paintings to Juno House Barcelona

BarcelonaBridging the gap between entrepreneurship and artistic creation. This is the goal that the women's club Juno House in Barcelona has set itself to promote and foster talent through the Beyond Art exhibition cycle, an initiative inaugurated this Tuesday inside the facilities of the former Farinera on Aribau Street. The first artist to inaugurate this new artistic project has been Joana Santamans, the painter who from a town of less than a thousand inhabitants in the Empordà looks to New York to boost her career.

Only 28% of individual exhibitions in museums and galleries in the State are created by women, according to the Institute of Contemporary Art. That is why Juno House, the club created to create entrepreneurial synergies between women, has proposed to tackle this problem. "When I already had five or six major works, I hesitated about showing the paintings before exhibiting them – because it is not usual in the sector – but I felt that people should know that I had changed my facet. Luckily I did! Before last summer I received a call from the interior designer Meritxell Ribé, who introduced me to the club's Nata.

It was precisely the interconnection between women that made it possible for the Santamans collection to be inaugurated on Tuesday – entitled Roots and mud: dialogues with nature– in front of some of the most influential people in the world of artistic entrepreneurship in Catalonia. The founder of Ze García, Queralt de Aurora; the brand director of Simorra, Eva Dimas; the art director of Casa Batlló, Maria Bernat, and the influencers Ariadna Tàpia and Pedro Soley are some of the people who enjoyed the works exhibited in the different rooms of Juno House and the conversation between the journalist specializing in AI Montserrat Rigall and the artist. The works will remain on display in the old flour mill until May 26, and can be visited by making an appointment at the club.

The artistic work of Joana Santamans at Juno House

What was supposed to start as a sporadic collaboration ended up becoming the exhibition of an exclusive collection and the starting signal for a new initiative that connects the business world –very present among the 600 members of the club on Aribau street– and artistic creation. In fact, Batlle assures that in the club there have been many women for some time now who have made their projects grow in the spaces offered by Juno, such as the author Anna Vicen and the jeweler Hanan Moser, who until now had not had the platform to promote their creations.

"Juno was born to represent women and, obviously, artistic creation was a field that had to be promoted," explains Batlle, who stresses that although other creative presentations had already been made, it was necessary to give a solid platform to this dynamic. "We have both been betting on the same thing from totally opposite places, but the fact is that both themes need each other to exist," says Santamans next to one of her works on display.

For the artist, the exhibition located at the intersection of Avenida Diagonal and Calle Aribau is the beginning of the path towards the internationalization of his work. "I think that in Anglo-Saxon cities they value abstract creation much more, that is why they are my objective. Even so, it is natural to go where they want you, like here, at Juno House," explained the Catalan. In fact, Santamans defends the fact that his works are exhibited in urban environments, such as the old flour mill, although they have been created in a natural environment and with organic materials around his studio in the Empordà. "It takes you to the substrate, to the root, and I think that this idea can have a much greater dialogue in the city, where everything is very effervescent."