Xavier Hufkens is currently running the final week of an exhibition of new work by Katherine Bernhardt titled Garfield on Scotch Tape. With the center point being the titular monumental 6m x 3m canvas "pattern painting," the entire showcase is an immersive experience wrapped within American artist's liquid imagery of cartoon characters and consumer goods.
Sourcing inspiration from New York's street culture and the Hypebeast world of Instagram, Bernhardt's paintings regularly mix her own memories along with these new visual inputs. Iconic images of Scotch Tape, Babar the Elephant, Pink Panther or Garfield, are mixed with oversized colorful Nikes, NYC Metro cards as well as familiar snacks or tropical fruits. With such an approach, she is somewhat reinventing the still life format by using the everyday objects as the main motif. Borrowing the aesthetics of the vague and drippy renderings of stain paintings, the mixture of images blends into sometimes almost abstract sections of colorful gestures. The compositions are built spontaneously and are often playing with the scale of the included motifs, creating a collage of suggestive elements that open up a variety of possible readings of the work. Further on, even using exceptionally vibrant colors that create an energetic and positive atmosphere in her works, the St Louis-born artist is often juxtaposing the lovable against detestable subjects such as cigarette butts or leftovers of junk food. —Sasha Bogojev
Bernhardt's work has recently landed her a collaboration with Nike which was introduced during the Hong Kong week and she will continue her Asian tour with a debut solo show which will open @ Nanzuka gallery in Tokyo on April 13, 2019
Photo credits: Allard Bovenberg, Amsterdam
Courtesy: the Artist and Xavier Hufkens, Brussels
