ΒΟΟΚ: Katherine Bernhardt: Why Is A Mushroom Growing In My Shower?-David Zwirner Books

Katherine Bernhardt’s  boundless visual appetite has established her as one of the most energetic painters working today. Her trust in the fundamental underpinnings of painting gives her the freedom to depict anything she wants, and the democratizing surfaces of her canvases work without illusion, perspective, logical scale shifts, or atmosphere. With Bernhardt’s blunt yet lyrical approach, each painting has the feel of a complete thought that engages rich and raucous free association. In the exhibition “Why is a mushroom growing in my shower?” the artist presented new paintings that feature Bernhardt’s familiar obsessions as well as fresh subjects including Ditto from Pokémon, Crocs footwear, magic mushrooms, and bathroom showers—which she conceives as a setting for these outlandish forms as well as a space to brainstorm ideas. In her imagery, Bernhardt playfully joins the absurd and the relevant, touching on such trends as the return of mycological fixations in popular culture or the increasing appetite for fashionable, comfortable shoes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The works also recall art-historical precedents that speak to a particular mode of postwar domestic life, suggesting the shower paintings of David Hockney, the tiled bathrooms portrayed in William Eggleston’s saturated colour photographs, and Superstudio’s furniture overlaid with orthogonal grids from the 1970s.  Expanding on the exhibition at David Zwirner, London, in 2022, the catalogue “Why is a mushroom growing in my shower?” includes additional paintings and works on paper in which Bernhardt develops her ongoing body of work. With many details of paintings, this significant publication gives the artist’s work ample space to play. Suzanne Hudson’s essay considers Bernhardt’s work from an art-historical perspective and explores the artist’s work and life.-Dimitris Lempesis