Details:
① Artwork:
Untitled
Here, Katherine Bernhardt continues her exploration of contemporary pop phenomena by focusing on the expansive Pokémon universe. Conceived by creator Satoshi Taijiri and art director Ken Sugimori and first launched by Nintendo in Japan in 1996, Pokémon was introduced to much fanfare in the United States in 1998 and has become one of the world’s largest cross-media franchises. In Bernhardt’s words, “I like to paint things that are infinite, things that have no end, or combinations and patterns of things that can be painted infinitely; for this reason, the Pokémon collection as a subject fits perfectly into my process of finding a never-ending subject matter for the creation of art.”
With her works on paper, Bernhardt draws first, then applies layers of colorful acrylic paint thinned with water, which pool and run together on the surface. Here, the shape-shifting Pokémon character Ditto gets rendered as a splotchy, amorphous blob against a stark white background. The work is mounted in a colorfully painted, custom frame that Bernhardt chose to complement the composition.
Specs:
③ Artist:
Katherine Bernhardt’s (b. 1975) boundless visual appetite has established her as one of the most energetic painters working today. Her trust in the fundamental underpinnings of painting gives her the freedom to depict anything she wants, and the democratizing surfaces of her canvases work without illusion, perspective, logical scale shifts, or atmosphere. With Bernhardt’s blunt yet lyrical approach, each painting has the feel of a complete thought that engages rich and raucous free association.
In 2023, David Zwirner’s Hong Kong location presented a solo exhibition of new works by Bernhardt. In 2022, the artist’s work was on view in Katherine Bernhardt: Why is a mushroom growing in my shower? at the gallery’s London location.
Work by the artist is found in prominent public and museum collections worldwide, including The Brant Foundation, New York; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee; Portland Museum of Art, Maine; Rubell Museum, Miami; and the San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas. Bernhardt lives and works in St. Louis.
