In bright, expressive paintings of pop culture characters, food, and consumer goods, Katherine Bernhardt explores the mundane iconography of contemporary society. The artist riffs on similar patterns or motifs across a number of canvases; E.T., the Pink Panther, shoes, and tropical fruits have been common refrains. Bernhardt often outlines her rough-hewn forms and situates them within flat fields of neon color. Her distinctive painting style finds the connective tissue between graffiti, color fields, and action painting. Bernhardt received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York and has exhibited in New York, Tokyo, Brussels, Los Angeles, Paris, Stockholm, and beyond. Her work belongs in the collections of the High Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Rubell Museum, the Portland Museum of Art, and the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, among others.
American, b. 1975