Cristina BanBan — Born 1987, Barcelona, Spain. Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Represented by 1969 Gallery, New York.

Cristina BanBan paints large-scale canvases filled with bodies in a bold palette of fleshy hues, their voluptuous forms emphasized with wide brushstrokes. Corporal and emotive, she depicts scenes of contemporary life, portraits of intimate moments, lonesome or shared among family and friends. BanBan’s maximalist compositions are marked by subjects spilling out of the confines of the canvas, bearing exaggerated eyes and enlarged hands and feet. Citing a diverse range of references, from Lucian Freud to Pablo Picasso, BanBan asserts her figures — sinewy bodies running and interacting with ease — into an art historical canon penned by the male gaze.

BanBan earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona. She has had solo exhibitions at 1969 Gallery, New York, in 2019 and 2020; and Perrotin, Shanghai, in 2021. Other recent solo and two-person exhibitions include those at 68 Projects, Berlin (2019); the Dot Project, London (2018 and 2017); Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2018). Recent group exhibitions include Auguries of Innocence, Fredericks & Freiser, New York (2020); Extra, The Hole, New York (2019); Forms, Cob Gallery, London (2018); and Griffin Art Prize, Griffin Gallery, London (2017). Other exhibitions include those at Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles; Stems Gallery, Brussels; and WOAW, Hong Kong. Her work has received critical acclaim from T-Spain, The New York Times Style Magazine, Vogue Magazine (Spain, Germany), Elephant and other publications.