Katherine Bernhardt
96 Degrees in the Shade, Sep 7 – Oct 16, 2005

For her first solo show at CANADA, New York-based artist Katherine Bernhardt presents paintings of urban fantasies that concern luxury and fashion. Fabulous, aggressive and decisive -these paintings are unflinching and faithful renderings of women who are at the height of everything.

Katherine Bernhardt received her MFA from School of Visual Arts in 2000. She will participate in 9 shows around the world this year including exhibitions in Vienna, Toronto, Puerto Rico, Houston, Basel and St. Paul.

Statement by the artist’s sister:

“96 degrees in the Shade” is a song by a reggae group Third World and it is also the title of the show. Bernhardt chose it because of her interest in and love for West Indian Caribbean culture and music. And most of her paintings are set not only in the shade but in retreats in dark forests. The dark brown backgrounds could also represent the dark skin tone of the African people. Bernhardt creates an atmosphere of sexy, sultry heat and humidity, a hot sticky climate with wild tropical flora and fauna. Bernhardt tries to bring the heart of colorful and diverse Caribbean culture and society alive into her paintings. The paintings are a reflection, a mélange and as a group serve as individual pieces of a complex mosaic of the artists loves: Afro-Caribbean, African and African American culture mixed with Italian fashion, the quintessence of beauty, lush landscapes, raw primitivism, hunters and gatherers, anthropology, the world of instinct and the five senses, gorgeous models in glossy magazines, exotic utopia, and of course, well-mixed paint. Bernhardt’s visual treat for her audience is a grouping of about 150 thumbnail “Haiku” mini-paintings; versions of the kinds of things we are used to seeing KB make on significantly larger canvases. Last but not least, it should be remembered that each one of Bernhardt’s little paintings is a self portrait of the artist (who by the way, stands a mere 5’2”). The cosmopolitan woman our little KB depicts are sometimes intense, confident, fashion-conscious, straight forward, exaggerated, hilarious, intense, emotional aggressive, sloppy, colorful, and they don’t take themselves too seriously.

By: Elizabeth Bernhardt.

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