At the Perrotin gallery, Cristina BanBan reinvents the poetic and tragic universe of Federico García Lorca. Between sensuality and melancholy, her large canvases embody the tension of desire and the power of emotion, in a carnal painting where Andalusian memory becomes contemporary.
Cristina Banban, The Final of the Dance, 2025. Photo: John Berens. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin
With "Lorquianas," Cristina BanBan presents her most ambitious project to date in Paris. The Spanish artist, now based in New York, takes hold of Federico García Lorca's legacy and breathes new life into it. First presented at the Alhambra Museum of Fine Arts in Granada, the exhibition takes on a new dimension here, blending pieces from the Spanish presentation with new works created specifically for the French capital.
BanBan does not seek to illustrate Lorca, but to engage in a dialogue with him. In his monumental canvases, the female figures, with bodies both powerful and vulnerable, convey the same dramatic intensity as the poet's heroines. In Yerma , two women—one overwhelmed, the other upright and hieratic—mirror an impossible desire and a mute resignation. Luto y ajuar , inspired by the Spanish playwright's The House of Bernarda Alba , reenacts the confrontation of generations, depicting grieving women facing rebellious youth, between restraint and sensuality. The red chairs and colorful stockings become symbols of resistance, life, and desire beneath the weight of silence.
Cristina BanBan, Venus, 2025. Photo: John Berens. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin
The artist also evokes domestic objects dear to Lorca—a pitcher, a cloth, a piece of jewelry—which she transforms into metaphors for destiny. In Venus and Clown , she explores the dualities of existence: fertility and artifice, sensuality and absurdity. La Zapatera Prodigiosa and Muchachas de Agua , created specifically for Paris, extend this quest for transformation: the female bodies float in a fluid, vibrant, sensual space, as if carried away by the current of desire and myth.
What is striking is the way BanBan infuses Lorca's drama with a raw, pictorial vitality. His broad, pulsating brushstrokes evoke both the substance of the gesture and the violence of the emotion. Poised between theater and painting, "Lorquianas" breathes new life into Lorca's inner Spain, not as a frozen memory, but as a living energy, permeated by light, silence, and struggle.
“Cristina BanBan – Lorquianas” Perrotin Gallery, Paris Marais
76, rue de Turenne, Paris 3e
Cristina Banban, La Zapatera Prodigious, 2025. Photo: John Berens, Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin
