Nike Panther, 2019

Katherine Bernhardt’s work explores the nature and symbolism of contemporary culture. She characteristically decontextualizes and juxtaposes her otherwise mundane subjects—from processed and fast foods to comic strip and cartoon characters—often arranging multiple instances of them within a field of striking and garish neon color. Her painting, “Hamburgers and French Fries and Basket Balls,” exemplifies this approach.

Bernhardt’s works combine elements of street art and vivid color schemes, all executed with rapidity. This aspect of her process is evidenced in the quick, bold brush strokes of acrylic paint, the pooled fields of spray field, and the impressionistic simplicity of her depictions—a style that is reminiscent of Henri Matisse, albeit with a uniquely contemporary form of presentation.

In rendering objects which are otherwise unremarkable in this manner, Katherine Bernhardt manages to elevate her subjects to new heights, lifting them out of the field of the ordinary, thereby calling them into question and inviting an interrogation of their iconography and cultural salience.