People of all ages fell for the cute gnome-like alien at the center of Steven Spielberg’s 1982 movie “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.” But some fell extra hard; Katherine Bernhardt, who turned 7 the year the movie premiered, was smitten enough to paint portraits of E.T. in art school. In her latest show, “Done with Xanax,” she returns to him, pushing her distinctive fusion of Pop Art, Color Field and graffiti toward a more vulnerable, narrative expression and more complex painting process.
Ms. Bernhardt has at times seemed stuck in her signature patterns formed by repeating images of popular commodities and motifs — cigarettes, sharks, cellphones, slices of fruit and floating emojis — on expanses of bright color. She has painted fictional figures like the Pink Panther, Babar the Elephant and Garfield, but E.T. is more dimensional, complicated by a kind of saintliness, otherness and conflict: He is a stranger in an inhospitable land who has healing powers and wants to go home.
Ms. Bernhardt renders E.T. single and large, like an icon, often outlined in gold or silver spray paint and frequently raising his glowing forefinger in benediction. She evokes but also takes liberties with moments from the movie, making them vaguely recognizable in the way that scenes from the Bible can be. For example, the paintings “Halloween in California” and “Halloween E.T. + Strawberries” show the extraterrestrial wearing the blond wig from the dress-up session in Gertie’s bedroom and a patterned muumuu that suggests suburban California of a certain era. In others, he’s famously aloft, in the basket of Elliott’s bicycle, or surrounded by push-button telephones reflecting his oft-stated desire to “Phone home!” Especially good is “Sick,” where E.T. is shrouded in a brilliantly white blanket that is unpainted canvas. It symbolizes the way Ms. Bernhardt has opened up her work — and her style. Hopefully, her progress will continue.
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