There is no denying that femininity and the female identity in the history of art were formed by men. The roles of women were played by men in theatre plays, the names of women were removed from books, and the female body was depicted from the masculine and heterosexual point of view in the visual arts. Women were simply unrecognized as who they were, as a matter of fact they were dictated. There can be no denying that women have been consistently oppressed throughout history.

Therefore you can understand the joy I feel, whenever I come across women artists who reclaim the female identity and reshape it through their acknowledgment in their art. Bambou Gili is one of them.

A painter from New York, Bambou Gili reappropriates the female body in many aspects. The women in her paintings do not have the ‘accepted’ standards, instead, they have lime green skin, bigger feet, and longer limbs. Other than those physical characteristics, Gili’s women are comfortable in their most vulnerable state, completely unashamed. As the female gaze rises and owns the female identity in art, Gili’s paintings contribute to redefining the representation of women.

For the artist, the nights have always been undeniably surreal. She states that people have always allowed themselves to do weird things under the cover of night. A time of the day, which is associated with melancholy and loneliness, Gili paints night scenes that are both calm and restless. She places mischievous characters alongside her naked women, which give uncertainty and discomfort to the viewer, while all figures are at ease and unaware of each other. The paintings look like imaginary settings with fantastical elements, and the stare of the women indicates that the only oddity is the spectator’s gaze.

Experimenting with rich and deep nocturnal colors, Gili questions and plays against the embraced figurations in contemporary life. The characters and the settings that she portrays are eccentric and unusual, even the paintings without any figures follow the same uneasy feeling.

The folklore inspirations and historical references in her artworks are obvious. Her first solo exhibition’s name “The Non-existent Night” alludes to “Il Cavaliere Inesistente” (meaning ‘non-existing knight’), an allegorical novel written by Italian writer Italo Calvino, exploring identity and integration with society.

One of her paintings titled “Ophelia In The Tub” is her depiction of John Everett Millais’ famous “Ophelia”, which was and still is admired for its beauty, and its accurate depiction of a natural landscape. Contrary to “Ophelia”, Gili’s playful adaptation is in a domestic setting with its crookedness and uncanny. Her woman is seen laying in the bathtub carelessly, unattired, and with a beer can next to her. It is possible that Gili was making a reference and was playing on the fact that John Everett Millais’ model originally posed in a bathtub.

You can follow Bambou Gili’s Instagram @bambou.gili and her website to learn about her and her upcoming artworks, and let us know about the female artists that you have been influenced by lately in our comment section below.

About Bambou Gili

Born in 1996, Bambou Gili is a painter from New York. The artist earned her BA in Psychology & Studio Art from New York University in 2018. Her artworks have been exhibited in numerous galleries and art spaces since 2018, including Arsenal Contemporary Art in New York, Cassina Projects in Milan, Y2K Projects in New York, PUBLIC Gallery in London, and Asia Art Center in Taipei. Her debut solo exhibition “The Non-existent Night” took place at Arsenal Contemporary Art New York in September 2021. Gili lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.