Skarstedt announces the joint representation of Cristina BanBan, with Perrotin.

The gallery will debut a new BanBan painting at TEFAF New York in May 2022, followed by a solo exhibition of new works in New York in the fall of 2022.

In BanBan’s 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.

The representation of Cristina BanBan advances the gallery’s continued focus on the artists who pioneered innovative approaches to figurative painting, such as Francis Bacon, Eric Fischl, Martin Kippenberger, Pablo Picasso, and David Salle.

Photo: Rafael Rios