"Art is for everyone!"

"For people who don't live and breathe art, there's a certain threshold to stepping into a gallery," says Jóhann Ágúst Hansen, managing director and co-owner of Gallerí Fold. "But art is for everyone. The internet has lowered this threshold, and far more people now take part in the gallery's online auctions than ever came to our auctions in person."

Gallerí Fold's word and figurative mark is ISIPO's Trademark of the Month for September. To mark the occasion, we visited the gallery on Rauðarárstígur. For the author of this article, who knows little about art, the threshold at the front door actually felt quite high. But Jóhann offered coffee in his office, which bears every sign of being used by creative people. Before long, the author had caught the art bug and was picturing several of the works on the gallery walls hanging in the living room at home.

Sometimes misses the old auctions

Jóhann says Gallerí Fold currently represents around 40 Icelandic artists. Their works can be bought at the gallery, which also holds regular exhibitions of their art. The other side of the business is art auctions, which Jóhann says moved entirely online after COVID. As many as 200 people may bid on a single work in an online auction, and many wait until the very last moment to place their bids. Following the auctions can therefore be nerve-racking, especially when valuable works are up for sale.

Asked about it, Jóhann admits that he sometimes misses the real-world auctions he ran on the gallery premises until 2023. "Yes, there was a great atmosphere, a bit like what you see in the movies. We sold one work a minute. People sometimes ask me to talk as fast as I did as an auctioneer, but I've found I can only do it at the rostrum during an auction. One steps into a role as auctioneer, and that role belonged to a particular time and place and a particular atmosphere," he says, with a noticeable glint in his eye.

Gallerí Fold holds online auctions every week, and most of the works come from estates, Jóhann explains. The auctions vary in size. An auction called Haustperlur (Autumn Pearls) has just closed, featuring around 100 higher-value works, including pieces by old masters such as Kjarval, Ásgrímur Jónsson and Louisa Matthíasdóttir. According to Jóhann, buyers can often find good bargains at these auctions, although the gallery makes sure that works are not sold below a set minimum price.

A logo that evokes both landscape and brushstroke

On the subject of the registered trademark, Jóhann says the name Gallerí Fold is very dear to him. He strongly associates it with Mother Earth and Iceland (fold is a poetic Icelandic word for the earth). The figurative element of the logo refers to a mountain range and landscape, but it is also a brushstroke. The logo was recently redesigned by Margrét Laxness, graphic designer and visual artist, who defined the gallery's wider visual identity and chose the typeface and the exact shade of blue. Jóhann says the logo appears on almost everything the company publishes, and the blue, which stands for trust, is prominent throughout. "The building itself is painted in this particular blue," he says, and is promptly informed that colours and colour combinations can, in some cases, be registered as trademarks.

Media coverage of the Pálsson dispute prompted the application

So why apply to register a brand as well established as Gallerí Fold? Jóhann admits that media coverage of the dispute over the Pálsson trademark was what pushed him to act. "It would be awful, after decades of building up the brand, to find one day that you're no longer allowed to use it!" He filed the application online himself. It was very straightforward and took barely ten minutes. Most of the time went into deciding exactly what to register, and whether to apply for a word mark, a figurative mark or a combined word and figurative mark.

Choosing the classes of goods and services also took some thought, Jóhann says, but applicants are guided well through the process. In the end he decided, for now, to apply only for classes related to the company's current business, rather than classes covering goods and services it might offer in the future.

Image and reputation create value

Finally, Jóhann encourages artists and small businesses in the art sector to give these matters some thought and register their trademarks. "In this sector, it's the image and reputation of artists that create value, and registering a trademark is one way to protect and secure that image."
We couldn't agree more.