The installation view of the exhibition, Courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
David Zwirner Gallery in Los Angeles has opened a solo exhibition of new paintings by acclaimed American artist Katherine Bernhardt, titled Sidewalk Chalk, on view from April 11 through June 14, 2025, at the gallery’s 616 N Western Avenue location. Known for her exuberant compositions and pop culture-infused iconography, Bernhardt continues to expand her distinctive visual vocabulary in this latest presentation, weaving together humorous, nostalgic, and seemingly mundane imagery with expressive gestures and chromatic excess.
The exhibition’s title, Sidewalk Chalk, evokes the unrestrained, childlike creativity of drawing on the pavement with colorful chalk cylinders. Bernhardt channels that spontaneous energy into her canvases, which are awash in pastel tones—particularly pinks, blues, and yellows—that mirror the hues of chalk and Americana consumer goods. The resulting works oscillate between abstraction and pop illustration, situating her within a lineage of contemporary painters who engage in both formal improvisation and cultural commentary.
It's Butter!, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 72 x 78 inches (182.9 x 198.1 cm), Courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
In her latest paintings, Bernhardt introduces new motifs such as Lucky Charms cereal marshmallows and sticks of butter, which intermingle with her signature characters, including Cookie Monster, Garfield, and the Pink Panther. These playful juxtapositions fuse childhood nostalgia with a sly art-historical awareness. A standout example is Chew (2024), which reimagines Cookie Monster as a voracious beast surrounded by household items like toilet paper rolls, loose cigarettes, toothpaste tubes, Vaseline, and more—an absurd yet pointed update to Giovanni da Modena’s infernal frescoes in the fifteenth-century Bolognini Chapel.
Other works in the exhibition, such as It’s Butter! (2024) and Butter Butter Butter Butter Butter (2024), emphasize both Bernhardt’s embrace of commercial color palettes and her swift, performative technique. Using spray paint and thinned acrylics, she draws and paints rapidly across canvases that are first mounted upright, then laid flat on the floor. She sometimes wields a mop as an unconventional tool, working on multiple paintings at once to allow chance and gesture to enter the final composition.
Chew, 2024, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 96 x 120 inches (243.8 x 304.8 cm), Courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
Bernhardt’s buttery yellows—intentionally referencing KitchenAid’s 2025 “Color of the Year”—are especially prominent, reinforcing the show’s humorous link to mass-market food branding. In It’s Butter!, Garfield stretches with glee between towering butter sticks, while in another work, a butter smear slashes across the Pink Panther’s cheek amid swirling marshmallows and shooting stars. Her improvisational method results in color bleeding and pooling across surfaces, lending a visceral immediacy to each canvas.
This body of work continues Bernhardt’s commitment to fusing everyday kitsch with painterly exuberance. Her visual language, which borrows freely from cartoons, logos, and consumer ephemera, becomes a frenetic but meaningful archive of contemporary culture. The juxtaposition of fine art traditions with childlike play and advertising aesthetics creates a jarring yet joyful effect that is uniquely her own.
The exhibition opened with a public reception on April 11 from 6 to 8 PM, drawing an enthusiastic crowd of collectors, critics, and fans. With Sidewalk Chalk, Bernhardt affirms her position as one of today’s most distinctive and provocative painters, capable of turning visual chaos into cultural reflection.
Sayart / Maria Kim, sayart2022@gmail.com
The installation view of the exhibition, Courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
David Zwirner Gallery in Los Angeles has opened a solo exhibition of new paintings by acclaimed American artist Katherine Bernhardt, titled Sidewalk Chalk, on view from April 11 through June 14, 2025, at the gallery’s 616 N Western Avenue location. Known for her exuberant compositions and pop culture-infused iconography, Bernhardt continues to expand her distinctive visual vocabulary in this latest presentation, weaving together humorous, nostalgic, and seemingly mundane imagery with expressive gestures and chromatic excess.
The exhibition’s title, Sidewalk Chalk, evokes the unrestrained, childlike creativity of drawing on the pavement with colorful chalk cylinders. Bernhardt channels that spontaneous energy into her canvases, which are awash in pastel tones—particularly pinks, blues, and yellows—that mirror the hues of chalk and Americana consumer goods. The resulting works oscillate between abstraction and pop illustration, situating her within a lineage of contemporary painters who engage in both formal improvisation and cultural commentary.
It's Butter!, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 72 x 78 inches (182.9 x 198.1 cm), Courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
In her latest paintings, Bernhardt introduces new motifs such as Lucky Charms cereal marshmallows and sticks of butter, which intermingle with her signature characters, including Cookie Monster, Garfield, and the Pink Panther. These playful juxtapositions fuse childhood nostalgia with a sly art-historical awareness. A standout example is Chew (2024), which reimagines Cookie Monster as a voracious beast surrounded by household items like toilet paper rolls, loose cigarettes, toothpaste tubes, Vaseline, and more—an absurd yet pointed update to Giovanni da Modena’s infernal frescoes in the fifteenth-century Bolognini Chapel.
Other works in the exhibition, such as It’s Butter! (2024) and Butter Butter Butter Butter Butter (2024), emphasize both Bernhardt’s embrace of commercial color palettes and her swift, performative technique. Using spray paint and thinned acrylics, she draws and paints rapidly across canvases that are first mounted upright, then laid flat on the floor. She sometimes wields a mop as an unconventional tool, working on multiple paintings at once to allow chance and gesture to enter the final composition.
Chew, 2024, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 96 x 120 inches (243.8 x 304.8 cm), Courtesy of David Zwirner Gallery
Bernhardt’s buttery yellows—intentionally referencing KitchenAid’s 2025 “Color of the Year”—are especially prominent, reinforcing the show’s humorous link to mass-market food branding. In It’s Butter!, Garfield stretches with glee between towering butter sticks, while in another work, a butter smear slashes across the Pink Panther’s cheek amid swirling marshmallows and shooting stars. Her improvisational method results in color bleeding and pooling across surfaces, lending a visceral immediacy to each canvas.
This body of work continues Bernhardt’s commitment to fusing everyday kitsch with painterly exuberance. Her visual language, which borrows freely from cartoons, logos, and consumer ephemera, becomes a frenetic but meaningful archive of contemporary culture. The juxtaposition of fine art traditions with childlike play and advertising aesthetics creates a jarring yet joyful effect that is uniquely her own.
The exhibition opened with a public reception on April 11 from 6 to 8 PM, drawing an enthusiastic crowd of collectors, critics, and fans. With Sidewalk Chalk, Bernhardt affirms her position as one of today’s most distinctive and provocative painters, capable of turning visual chaos into cultural reflection.
