ᐅ What's Up by Katherine Bernhardt (2020) | Sculpture

Artwork information

Material

Bronze

Date

2020

Dimensions

40 cm x 25 cm x 25 cm

Signature

Signed

Proof(s) of authenticity

Sculpture sold accompanied by a certificate issued by Apportfolio.

State of conservation

Very good

Location

Taipei, Taiwan

Description

Katherine Bernhardt, What’s Up, 2020

There are images we think we know by heart. And then there are those Katherine Bernhardt subtly shifts—almost distorts.

With What’s Up, she takes a universally recognizable figure—joyful, frontal, almost too obvious—and nudges it elsewhere. The gesture seems simple, but the shift is real: from the immediacy of drawing and the nervous energy of painting to the density of bronze, to something that carries weight and permanence. What once belonged to visual flow becomes an object, a presence.

The sculpture operates in that tension. On one side, a popular image—instantly readable, almost childlike. On the other, a material loaded with history, tied to tradition, to the idea of serious sculpture. Bernhardt doesn’t resolve that contrast—she lets both exist at once.

The volumes are deliberately direct, without unnecessary refinement. The smile is wide, almost too perfect. And yet something resists: in the proportions, in the surface, in this refusal to be overly polished. As if the piece resists being reduced to something purely decorative.

What happens here is less an appropriation than a translation. An image we’ve seen countless times becomes something to look at differently. Slower. More physical.

Issued in an edition of 80, signed, and preserved in very good condition, this sculpture marks a key moment in Bernhardt’s practice—when her visual language moves beyond the surface and fully inhabits space.

A work that operates on two speeds: immediate and almost obvious at first glance, yet more complex the longer you stay with it.

Provenance

Apportfolio

The artist

Painter

Sculptor

Katherine Bernhardt

Famous artist

Painter

Sculptor

Born in 1975

United States

Bio

Katherine Bernhardt, born in 1975 in St. Louis, Missouri, is a contemporary American artist known for her bold, colorful, and instantly recognizable paintings. Her work operates at the intersection of gestural abstraction and popular imagery, establishing her as one of the most distinctive painters of her generation.

She studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and later at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where she developed a direct and intuitive approach to painting. From the early 2000s, Bernhardt rejected traditional hierarchies of subject matter, embracing a spontaneous and unpolished visual language.

Her work is characterized by recurring motifs drawn from contemporary visual culture, including cigarettes, mobile phones, Nike sneakers, pizza, and cartoon characters such as Pink Panther and Garfield. These elements are often repeated across open compositions, where the background remains active, revealing the physical gesture of painting.

Bernhardt’s paintings exist in a constant tension between spontaneity and structure. While her forms may appear simple or even naïve, they are driven by a strong pictorial energy rooted in both abstract expressionism and popular culture.

Beyond their apparent playfulness, her works explore themes related to image consumption, visual saturation, and the symbolic power of everyday objects. By isolating these elements, she transforms them into visual signs that reflect contemporary culture.

Katherine Bernhardt has exhibited internationally in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, London, and Berlin. Her work is included in numerous important public and private collections.

Her market has grown significantly since the 2010s, with strong demand for her large-scale paintings, while works on paper and editions attract a broader collector base.

Today, Katherine Bernhardt stands as a key figure in contemporary painting, redefining the boundaries between popular culture and fine art, and capturing the visual intensity of our time with remarkable clarity.