The objects featured in Katherine Bernhardtâs paintings are as quotidian as it gets: batteries, Doritos, cigarettes, blenders, laptops, coffee makers, burgers, Nikes. The stuff that gets you going and keeps you going. Gregarious and brash, they are at once effortless and carefully balanced, predicated on the classic composition of the grid while working Warholâs maxim of âliking thingsâ then painting them. An array of objects are first traced out with fast lines of bright spray paints. The shapes created are then loosely filled with various densities of acrylic paint, varying from straight out of the tube to watery washes. Full-bodied and electric, her palette is a harmony of opposites, such as day-glo pink butting up happily against shadowy brown and ochre-orange. None of her shapes â which follow a basic circle, square, triangle or rectangle form â overlap or dominate the other. Itâs a non-hierarchical schematic, representative of day-to-day life as found, sold and bought in any typical big town or small town convenience store. Represented by the influential CANADA Gallery, Katherine Bernhardt is a key player in New Yorkâs contemporary painting scene. Sheâs collaborated with hip-hop superstar Drake, painted a swimming pool in Miami, created a public mural in LA, and runs her own Moroccan carpet import business. Bernhardt is currently exhibiting at âNo Manâs Land: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collectionâ and will be showing new work at MANIFESTA 2016 in Zürich. Bernhardt was born in St Louis, Missouri, in 1975. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
