Cristina BanBan, born in 1987 in Barcelona, Spain, is a figurative painter whose large-scale canvases place voluptuous, unapologetically physical female bodies at the centre of a charged conversation about the gaze, desire, and self-representation.
Working in oils, acrylics, pastels, and charcoal, BanBan constructs compositions in which exaggerated anatomy serves emotional rather than realistic ends: oversized hands convey confidence, a tilt of the head suggests shyness, and figures balloon to fill the entire picture plane with a vitality that is at once sensuous, humorous, and direct. Her practice draws on personal experience and everyday observation, producing paintings that feel simultaneously intimate and monumental. Works such as At the Studio (2019) and the series Big Mama (2019) exemplify her ability to capture character and inner life with rare penetrating clarity.
Cristina BanBan participated in the artist-in-residence program at 68projects by KORNFELD Galerie Berlin in October 2018, resulting in the solo exhibition I've Got Nothing to Lose, her first solo show in Germany, presented at 68projects from April to June 2019.
Cristina BanBan was born in 1987 in Barcelona, Spain. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona in 2010 and subsequently relocated to London, before settling in Brooklyn, New York, where she continues to live and work. In 2017, she was awarded the Arts Club Prize at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London, an early recognition that anticipated the rapid international trajectory her practice would follow.
BanBan's paintings centre on the female body as a site of agency, pleasure, and self-determination. Her figures are voluptuous and deliberately exaggerated, recalling the physical authority of Rubens and the directness of naïve painting while remaining firmly rooted in the present tense of her own lived experience. She works across oils, acrylics, pastels, and charcoal, often on large-scale canvases that allow her figures to expand without apology, claiming space with their flesh and their gaze. Anatomy in BanBan's work is never anatomically correct in a conventional sense: proportions shift to carry emotional weight, with oversized hands signalling empowerment, disproportionate limbs emphasising movement and flexibility, and high-key, desaturated palettes punctuated by moments of pop colour that guide the eye through the composition. Her paintings document everyday life and emotion with both honesty and confidence, and her conviction that art should be immediately legible, requiring no supplementary explanation, gives her work its particular directness and warmth.
BanBan's work is held in the Rema Hort Mann Foundation collection (USA) as well as numerous international private collections. Her paintings have been presented at the FLAG Art Foundation, New York, and she has been featured in Louisiana Channel, the video platform of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, reflecting the breadth of institutional interest her practice has attracted.
A significant institutional milestone came in 2025 with Lorquianas, a solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts at the Palace of Charles V, Granada, Spain, one of the most historically resonant venues in the country. The exhibition confirmed BanBan's standing as one of the most compelling figurative painters of her generation working today.
Cristina BanBan participated in the artist-in-residence program at 68projects by KORNFELD Galerie Berlin in October 2018. The residency resulted in I've Got Nothing to Lose, her first solo exhibition in Germany, presented at 68projects, Fasanenstrasse 68, Berlin, from 25 April to 22 June 2019. The exhibition brought together several large-scale paintings and drawings, including works produced during the Berlin residency itself, among them At the Studio, Big Mama, and El Sueño Va Sobre El Tiempo. KORNFELD Galerie Berlin also presented BanBan's work at Untitled Art Fair, Miami (2019) and Enter Art Fair, Copenhagen (2020). In 2024, she was included in Berlin on My Mind, the group exhibition at 68projects by KORNFELD Galerie Berlin celebrating ten years of the gallery's artist-in-residence program. Her practice continues to deepen its engagement with the female body as a subject of dignity, desire, and self-possession, drawing ever larger institutional audiences across Europe and the Americas.
-
Berlin on my Mind. Celebrating 10 Years of Artistic Residency at 68projects by KORNFELD – Groupshow
21 Jun - 24 Aug 2024 68projectsARTISTSRead more
Dawit Abebe, Olasunkanmi Akomolehin, Cristina BanBan, Yevgeniya Baras, William Bradley, Giorgio Celin, Chris Engman, Kimia Ferdowsi Kline, Seong Joon Hong, Chris Hood, Michael John Kelly, Alexander Kroll, Doron Langberg, Sandeep Mukherjee, Jennifer Packer, Adrianne Rubenstein, Kyungmi Shin, Levan Songulashvili, Panos Tsagaris, Rachel Eulena Williams & Liat Yossifor
INFORMATION
On 21 June, we will showcase 21 works by the 21 artists who have been our guests as artists-in-residence over the past 10 years of 68projects by KORNFELD – with ‘Berlin on My Mind’. We are celebrating our 10 years with 68projects by KORNFELD and the 10 years of our artist-in-residence program, but also our future, which we hope to keep creating in Berlin. In Berlin, international artists look for new perspectives, a place where ideas mingle
Opening: June 21 2024, 6 pm
Exhibition: June 21 – August 24 2024, Tue – Sat, 11 am – 6 pm
68projects by KORNFELD, Fasanenstr. 68, 10719 Berlin -
Cristina BanBan – I’ve got nothing to Lose
25 Apr - 22 Jun 2019 68projectsThe exhibition: 'I've got nothing to lose', includes several large-scale dynamic paintings and drawings, including works made in Berlin last October during BanBan's 68projects residency. Women are the stars in BanBan's work. Ballooning to envelop the entirety of the canvas, the figures in her paintings unapologetically take up space with their flesh. Their shapely forms reclaim the traditional authority of the male gaze and reorient the significance of the female figure. Her women take on an active role in their presence, controlling the gaze of the viewer and addressing it in various positions of repose, erotic pleasure, and dominance.Read more
-
Enter Art Fair 2020
Copenhagen, Denmark 27 - 30 Aug 2020Galerie KORNFELD at Enter Art Fair 2020, Farshad Farzankia, Nick Dawes, Susanne Roewer, Cristina BanBanRead more -
Untitled Miami 2019
Miami, USA 4 - 8 Dec 2019Galerie KORNFELD at Untitled Miami 2019, Cristina BanBan, Nick Dawes, Susanne RoewerRead more