About

The Dot Project is pleased to present Candy, a dual show featuring new works by London-based artists Cristina BanBan (b. 1987) and Dominic Dispirito (b. 1982). Candy grapples with how to navigate a world saturated by consumerism, digital imagery, humour and the struggle of everyday life. Recalling the use of bold colours and commonplace objects found in Pop Art painting, BanBan’s and Dispirto’s work is characterised by cartoonish exaggeration of modern day banalities. BanBan fills the canvas with voluptuous bodies, often engaged in familiar domestic acts – eating a Chinese, scrolling through your phone, shaving your legs. Likewise, Dispirito’s paintings recall humdrum activities of everyday existence like walking the dog in the park, having a coffee, eating an ice cream. However, this leisurely illusion is offset by the ironic and self-aware tone of the artists. BanBan’s work reflects a portrait of the society in which she lives - the situations she witnessed, that pass by as unremarkable, at a glance. Through the process of painting she filters this generic imagery, imbuing it with the intimacy and personal touch that redirects it towards a more autobiographical storyline. BanBan works on different layers of paint through an additive and substrate process until she feels the image is complete. The appetizing palette she uses contrasts with a certain degree of frustration felt in some of her paintings. The analog painting’s relationship with digital technology plays a key role in Dispirito’s practice. All of his works start life with use of iPhone apps - the drawings and animations composed in this digital space are then made into paintings which mimic the digital textures and colours of these studies. In his most recent works Dispirito focuses on subjective human states of being. His subject matter is isolated and reduced, becoming the focus for painterly exercises in colour, volume and style. The digital plasticity found in the bold colours and simplified shapes - as well as the range of emotions that they convey - creates uneasy atmosphere in the works. Dispirito’s dreamscapes have more than a splash of technicolour plasticity about them; although at first glance the candy colours maintain their visual appeal - they are not necessarily a somewhere we would want to live. Cristina BanBan is a Spanish artist based in London. She obtained a BA in Fine Art from the University of Barcelona. BanBan recently has been awarded with the Arts Club Prize from the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. Cristina has exhibited in solo and group shows in London and Spain. Her work is part of private collections in London, Spain, Brazil and US. Dominic Dispirito obtained a BA in Fine Art from Middlesex University, 2013 and a MA in Painting from the Slade School of Fine Art. In 2017 he received The Bruce Maclean Prize and The Adrian Carruthers Studio Award. Recent exhibitions include Two Blokes at 25m2, Eindhoven (2017); GIFC Worldwide touring exhibition curated by Charlie Roberts; The politics of too many rubbish dinner parties at Chalton Gallery, London. Dominic lives and practices in London.