As a Muse, Pokémon? See Katherine Bernhardt’s Joyous New Paintings, Inspired by the Popular Pocket Monsters

Pratiksha Shome

In her flamboyant, sloppy, color-pop paintings, Katherine Bernhardt has been flinging commonplace objects onto the canvas for the past 20 years. To scan a gallery of Bernhardts is to witness an intuitive artist at work; one who sees something close at hand and then transforms it into something vast, flat, and submerged in a sea of colour.

Pokémon cards have been the thing within reach most recently. During the epidemic, Bernhardt’s son started collecting the cards, and soon she was a devotee as well. In her upcoming exhibition at David Zwirner Hong Kong, “Dummy doll jealous eyes ditto pikachu beefy mimikyu rough play Galarian rapid dash libra horn HP 270 Vmax full art,” which is scheduled to run until August 20, Bernhardt portrays the lively, joyous escapism of the Pokémon universe.

Her first solo exhibition in Hong Kong features a majority of paintings that mimic the formal elements of a Pokémon trading card: a rectangular portrait with a defined border and the Pokémon’s Hit Points (HP), energy kind, and skill moves written in both English and Japanese.

Bernhardt, as usual, is not a fan of haughty titles. In Surfing Pikachu (2021), a happy Pikachu rides a pink surfboard as it races through a sea of swirls. Chansey (2021) is as friendly as she always is while holding her lucky egg, which has the Pokédex number “#113” and looks like a golden acorn.

The execution is where the difference lies. Pokémon cards, which Nintendo published in 1996 under the guidance of Ken Sugimori, have a glossy, computer-enhanced appearance, with the layout striking a balance between artwork and gameplay details. The “cards” of Bernhardt are not subject to this restriction. Her animals dominate the canvas, poking through borders in startling gestures that resemble recognisable movements from Nintendo video games. Colours clash and blend together.

 

Source: Artnet news