Listen to House of Lou to hear our interview with Katherine Bernhardt, where she discusses her iconic Central West Home, inspired by the Memphis Milano movement of the 1980s.
In an auto shop turned art studio in Midtown, artist Katherine Bernhardt uses spray paint and acrylic to create masterpieces bound for such destinations as New York, London, Brussels, and Tokyo. Leaning against every available wall are canvases—some 12 feet tall—emblazoned with larger-than-life cartoon characters, school supplies, foods, and other everyday objects that, Bernhardt says, are humorous or “don’t go together.” She purchased the 6,000-square-foot space upon her return to St. Louis in August 2019 and worked with Ann Wimsatt, principal architect and co-founder of Cite Works Architects, to completely revamp the building, from the water lines now running under the floor to the roof overhead. “I wanted to provide a place where she could just experiment,” Wimsatt says of the renovation.
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After living in New York for more than 20 years, St. Louis–born artist Katherine Bernhardt has returned home—and she’s brought her collection of nearly 1,200 paintings with her. Bernhardt moved back to St. Louis in August 2019 and purchased three buildings in Midtown. One serves as her studio; another contains her many paintings, as well as her gallery, Dragon Crab & Turtle; and the third has not yet been redeveloped. After finding the properties, each within short distance of one another, Bernhardt worked closely with Cite Works Architects co-founder Ann Wimsatt to turn the first two into Katherine Bernhardt originals where her creativity flows. Bernhardt estimates that she works on five to 10 pieces there each week, and they ship out to galleries and buyers all over the world.
Why did you leave New York after 20-plus years?
KB: I came back here mostly to help my parents. And then it happened that my lease was running out on my art studio [in New York], and I didn’t want to renew that. I said, I’m done; let’s go do something different. It was good timing. The last truck from my studio got out a week before everything was shut down for COVID.
Why did you choose Midtown?
KB: There were no studios in St. Louis. I found this, and it was so close to the
AW: It needed a big renovation. In St. Louis, this has been an underappreciated area, so the buildings were reasonably priced. She’s cranking out amazing work in here, and we’re very lucky to have her.
What sort of renovations did you make to the studio?
KB: We did everything. We built this wall [motions toward the east wall, where several of her finished works are leaning]. We did the roof, the electric, all the lighting, the windows.
AW: We painted it. It was brick, and Katherine wanted to see what it looked like white. We did the tint on the windows. We pulled over some of the other things that she had already done [at the gallery]. That one was different because it is just for storage, which we needed to keep a certain temperature, and I wanted to make sure [the art] was always safe over there. But here I wanted to make sure she was happy and that it was very conducive to her work.
Did you two know each other before working on these projects?
AW: No. I got this email from her assistant in New York that said, We bought a building in St. Louis, and we want to make it into an artist’s studio. Are you interested in that job? I said, Yeah, but I can’t talk right now, because I’m in New York for a week. And she wrote back and said, We’re in New York! So we quickly arranged to meet at a coffee shop in Brooklyn.
KB: It was so random, too, because I was, like, How do I find an architect in St. Louis? I Googled “best architect in St. Louis,” and her name came up.
What inspires your artwork?
KB: It’s always childhood things or childhood obsessions. When I was little here in St. Louis, one of the only things I liked, design-wise, was the Swatch watches at Dillard’s. So, I would go to Dillard’s to look at them, and I would collect Swatch watches. I was always collecting stuff. … One of the other things to do was look at magazines. Some of my early work is all supermodels from magazine pictures. Then I became obsessed with Moroccan rugs and started painting those.
Do you think moving back has influenced your work?
KB: It all comes out of growing up in that house. So, now I’m in the thick of it again. I live in my childhood bedroom. … It’s awesome, because I can leave the house and leave [my son] with my dad or my sister. Not that I go out anywhere. [Laughs]
I see the Hi-Fi Fo-Fum character in some of these paintings. Why him?
KB: He’s a really good character. He’s hilarious. … Philip Slein had the little baby one, and he also had the big one but sold it to MoModerne. I saw that MoModerne had it and thought, Oh my god, I’ve gotta get that.
AW: After that, he started showing up in all the paintings. But if you weren’t from here, you wouldn’t know where he’s from.
What’s your process like?
KB: I don’t make one painting; I’ll make, like, 50 paintings, over and over and over in different ways. … They’re fast. I draw them out upright first and spray paint a big drawing. Then I lay the painting on the floor and paint everything. I use lots of water. I like the water to pool and move around. I love how it makes its own mess.
Were you glad not to be in New York during COVID-19?
KB: Yeah. To be trapped in an apartment with my son, I would not want to do that. … I kept my apartment in New York, though, just so I can go back and forth for the shows at my gallery there, Canada. I don’t think you need to be in New York anymore. … This is a good base. There’s lots of space here. And then when you can travel again, it will all be good.
