Painting on large-scale colorful canvases filled with enlarged voluptuous feminine figures that remind us of 18th century neoclassical painting; Cristina BanBan (b. 1987, Barcelona) is manipulating perspectives to draw attention to the monumentality of the figures, showing them in ‘spaces’ that seem too small to contain them. She challenges the notion of conventional figurative representation, offering her own take on figuration. Influenced by anime and expressionist aesthetics, her creatures seem mysteriously odd with their opulent and juicy looking bodies and their enormous hands and feet.
BanBans’ figures are often doing things in situations that are familiar to her, stressing the subjectivity of the personal experiences. Her paintings draw from both personal experience and popular culture or street scenarios, creating a heightened sense of drama from the everyday. They are painted in a direct way, with a color palette including a lot of pink, reminding us of Philip Guston. The female characters - sometimes including herself - are depicted with an endearing honesty, creating a tender, intimate atmosphere.