Cristina BanBan “24-hour Booth”

Cristina BanBan “24-hour Booth”

1969 Gallery

This event has ended.

1969 Gallery presents Cristina BanBan: 24-hour Booth, the artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States, consisting of paintings and drawings made during her residency in New York City over the past two months. As the artist describes her stay, “I dipped myself into the extravaganza and mishmash of this urban mass. I looked closely to people, made friends, talked to strangers, danced, ate and drunk in as many different places I could, always trying to follow that restless blast of energy that this city brings.”
The show’s title, borrowed from the MTA’s ambiguous subterranean subway signage, represents BanBan’s approach to capturing the multifaceted nature of New York, sourcing imagery and iconography from snapshots of the city, itself a non-stop parade of exhibitionism and vivacity.

In each of the paintings on view, BanBan chronicles the assorted denizens of New York’s bustling urban landscape. Bold two-dimensional portraiture gives way to personal narrative that express the confessions of its subjects, imbuing the quotidian and mundane with a certain intrigue and humanity that would otherwise be missed by locals when surveying everyday life in the city. “Soft Care”, a large-scale acrylic painting, features a woman hung over a bodega counter, one hand draped over a credit card machine, and the other pulling a strand of blue chewing gum from her red lips, twisting it around her finger. “J or M to Lorimer” depicts dozing straphangers, bodies piled high, with their limbs intimately intertwined.

Cristina BanBan (b. 1987, Barcelona) lives and works in London. She obtained a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona and recently has been awarded with the Arts Club Prize from the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. BanBan recently had a solo show at The Dot Project (London, UK) and a two-person show with Audun Alvestad at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery (London, UK). She has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including at The Hole (New York, NY), Cob Gallery (London, UK), and Here East (London, UK), among others. Her work is held in many private collections internationally.

Media

• Painting
• Drawing

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