Katherine Bernhardt

The objects featured in Katherine Bernhardt’s 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 Warhol’s maxim of ‘liking things’ then painting them.

First an array of objects are traced out with fast lines of bright spray paints. The shapes created are then loosely in-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, an instance being day-glo pink butting up happily against shadowy brown and ochre-orange. None of her shapes – which follow a basic circle, square, triangle or rectangle form – overlap or dominate the other. It’s 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.

Recent solo shows include Venus Over Manhattan, NY (2015), CANADA Gallery, NY (2014), China Art Objects, LA (2014) and Roberto Paradise, Puerto Rico (2013). In July this year, Venus Over Los Angeles unveiled a giant wall mural by Bernhardt on the building’s exterior. 2015-16 group shows include White Cube (London), Salon 94 (New York), Kate McGarry (London), Marlborough Gallery (Madrid) and Gavin Brown Enterprise (New York). This is her first solo exhibition at the gallery.