Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, April 12, 2024: Cristina BanBan, a Spanish emerging artist (#1996)

Cristina BanBan (1987) is a Spanish emerging artist. She now lives and works in Brooklyn. She earned her BFA in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona.

In her paintings and works on paper, the exaggerated portrayals of the female form configure into emotive compositions imbued with intimacy and poise. Evading distinct narratives, the works fuse references to the painterly canon of Modernism with the artist’s personal memories and reflections on the present moment. Sinuous contours enveloping the figures operate in contrast with planes of thick color, which evoke the parity of human flesh and oil paint seen in the works of Willem de Kooning and Lucian Freud.

Emphasizing the physicality of the human body, BanBan’s tranquil characters appear to have clandestine power, their enormous hands promising colossal strength. Engaged in melancholic contemplation, the figures rarely meet each other’s gaze, pointing to the human isolation inflicted by the social and political disruptions of recent years. BanBan’s nudes are at times punctuated with intimate apparel or adorned with hoop earrings and hair clips. They become resolutely contemporary, presenting powerful images of women secure in their relationships and space. Often bearing features of the artist, the paintings are in part autobiographical.

Recent solo exhibitions include Skarstedt, London (2023); Perrotin, Tokyo (2023); Skarstedt, New York (2022-2023); Perrotin, Paris (2022); Perrotin, Shanghai (2021); 1969 Gallery and Albertz Benda, New York (2021); WOAW Gallery, Hong Kong (2020); 1969 Gallery, New York (2020); 68 Projects, Berlin (2019); the Dot Project, London (2018). BanBan has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including Present Generations at Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus (2021); The Hort Family Collections, New York (2019); and Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2017, at Royal Academy of the Arts, London. She was the recipient of a residency at Palazzo Monti, Brescia (2019) and The Arts Club Prize, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2017). Her work can be found in the permanent collections of Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; FLAG Art Foundation, New York; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain; and the Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL.

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