Studio: Katherine Bernhardt

This edition of Studio marks Katherine Bernhardt’s first presentation with David Zwirner, concurrent with a selection of her works at ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair. In this new body of work created in her St. Louis studio, the artist’s characteristically energetic style—which juxtaposes a growing list of quotidian motifs with fields of exuberant color—is applied to her latest pop culture reference, in monumental canvases and smaller works on paper.

Bernhardt’s St. Louis studio is filled with objects discovered at local thrift shops, in her parents’ home, and on her travels around the world. Photo by Lyndon French

“My work is directly related to the house where I grew up and the maximalist aesthetic that is within it. Space filled up everywhere with no space to breathe, my work kind of copies that. Filling every inch of the canvas with symbols and things.”

—Katherine Bernhardt

Dr Teeth + Doritos, 2021

Katherine Bernhardt

Dr Teeth + Doritos, 2021

Acrylic and spray paint on canvas

120 x 96 1/8 inches (304.8 x 244.2 cm)

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Dr. Teeth, from The Muppets by Jim Henson

This new series of paintings features Dr. Teeth, the lead singer and keyboardist of the Muppet band Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem that debuted in 1975, the year Bernhardt was born. He’s the latest character—among them E.T., Garfield, Darth Vader, and the Pink Panther—to be integrated into her unique visual style that culls from American pop vernacular.

“Dr. Teeth is an inspirational figure as he also represents music and the making of music. He is chaotic, the way he is and what he looks like. His body, his hair, his hat, beard, nose, his eyes, everything about him is just crazy. Everything that I think makes for a good painting.”

Dr Teeth + Cheese Balls + 1975, 2021

Katherine Bernhardt

Dr Teeth + Cheese Balls + 1975, 2021

Acrylic and spray paint on canvas

120 x 96 1/8 inches (304.8 x 244.2 cm)

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Bernhardt references a screenshot of a Pokémon character on her iPhone—inspired by her son, Khalifa—while painting. Photo by Lyndon French

Bernhardt works on numerous paintings at the same time, moving quickly from canvas to canvas. Photo by Lyndon French

Bernhardt begins her paintings by drawing with spray paint on upright canvases, later placing them face up on the studio floor where she paints with acrylic mixed with water, allowing the colors to flow together in chance encounters.

“I love everything about painting: I love color and I love mixing it, I always have. I love putting a brush to a canvas and making a line. I love Morris Louis and his stain painting, and Mary Heilmann and her colors. I think it’s a funny thing to do in 2021, and I think it’s amazing humans are still doing it. It’s an impulse to make things and for me that impulse is in painting.”

Installation view of Katherine Bernhardt’s new works on paper featuring Dr. Teeth at David Zwirner, New York, 2021

“Works on paper are usually paint-on-paper, to-the-point straightforward line drawings. I usually draw something out first, then add to it in a couple of layers of color. They are also made with lots of water and fluid colors. I like them to be messy. I also like to make a lot at the same time, going back and forth between the works.”

Bernhardt paints with a wet-on-wet process using acrylic mixed with water, moving from canvas to canvas with the same colors. Photo by Lyndon French

Untitled, 2021

Katherine Bernhardt

Untitled, 2021

Acrylic on paper

26 1/4 x 39 5/8 inches (66.7 x 100.6 cm)
Framed: 28 3/4 x 42 1/8 inches (73 x 107 cm)

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“Lots of my work is inspired by what my son, Khalifa, might be watching or playing with. He is actually the one who inspired the very first Pink Panther paintings and the newest Pokémon work too.”

Paintings regularly line the walls and dry across the floor, filling every space in Bernhardt’s studio. Photo by Lyndon French

“The turquoise blue kitchen in my parent’s house where I am currently living is a huge inspiration. As well as the hoarder aesthetic throughout the house. Piles of things on top of things. Creating weird sculptural elements throughout the house. All the stuff around the house feeds into my painting—toys, art, rugs, household objects, colors, everything in the house influences my work in the studio.”

Dr Teeth + Cigarettes, 2021

Katherine Bernhardt

Dr Teeth + Cigarettes, 2021

Acrylic and spray paint on canvas

120 x 96 1/8 inches (304.8 x 244.2 cm)

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Untitled, 2021

Katherine Bernhardt

Untitled, 2021

Acrylic on paper

39 3/4 x 26 3/8 inches (101 x 67 cm)
Framed: 42 1/8 x 28 3/4 inches (107 x 73 cm)

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Katherine Bernhardt in her studio. Photo by Lyndon French

Bernhardt derives inspiration from what’s around her, whether the plants, patterns, and symbols she discovers on her travels or the Oscar the Grouch ceramic jar and Kool-Aid T-shirt she found at a local thrift shop.

Dr Teeth + Cheese Balls, 2021

Katherine Bernhardt

Dr Teeth + Cheese Balls, 2021

Acrylic and spray paint on canvas

120 x 96 1/8 inches (304.8 x 244.2 cm)

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“I never feel like I have enough paintings and need to make more and more. It’s an obsession to need to make an image. I also like humor in art and try to paint the most mundane thing I can find, like toilet paper or cigarettes, something that you would never think to paint, but that could be funny.”

Bernhardt in front of a new 31-foot-long painting. Photo by Lyndon French

Untitled, 2021

Katherine Bernhardt

Untitled, 2021

Acrylic on paper

39 3/4 x 26 1/4 inches (101 x 66.7 cm)
Framed: 42 1/8 x 28 3/4 inches (107 x 73 cm)

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Untitled, 2021

Katherine Bernhardt

Untitled, 2021

Acrylic on paper

39 3/4 x 26 3/8 inches (101 x 67 cm)
Framed: 42 1/8 x 28 3/4 inches (107 x 73 cm)

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“The things I paint inspire my palette.… Cigarettes pushed and shoved one on top of another, bent and used, cornered and layered together with no room or space. Dirty and messed up. This is the space of my painting and my house.”

Bernhardt in her studio. Photo by Lyndon French

You can see more work by Katherine Bernhardt at ART021, Shanghai, November 11–14

Inquire about Works by Katherine Bernhardt