Article: In the Studio: With Nike Shoes and Cigarettes, Katherine Bernhardt Codifies Our Contemporary Hieroglyphs

Despite her having just closed three concurrent solo shows at the New York and L.A. locales of Venus (formerly Venus Over Manhattan and Venus Over Los Angeles) and Carl Freedman, the long, narrow space is bursting at the seams with brightly colored, electric paintings of watermelons, sharks, and bananas. Some lay on the paint-splattered cement floor, drying; others are rolled in plastic or propped up on empty paint buckets against the walls. But to get to this painter’s haven, brimming with spray paint and gallon jugs of acrylic in infinite lush colors, you must pass through a lair of Moroccan rugs, piled high and tacked across the walls. It’s an ideal playground for Bernhardt’s four-year-old son Khalifa, who alternates climbing and lounging on the stacks and goes relatively unnoticed save for his scattered Mack Trucks and toy cars. But it also serves as a well of inspiration for Bernhardt’s surprisingly codified works and the flagship for her Berber rug importing business.