About Artwork

Over the past decade Bernhardt has focused on painting all sorts of pop culture icons (e.g. Darth Vader, R2D2, Garfield, the Smurfs, E.T., the Pink Panther, etc.) as well as objects of more quotidian pop culture (such as cigarettes, toilet paper, NYC metro passes, plantains, sharks, water melons, tennis shoes, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Scotch Tape, ice cream, pizza, etc.).

Bernhardts recent exhibition at Art Omi, GOLD explores the legendary Pink Panther in a series of vibrant, large canvases. While the original 1963 version of the panther was portrayed in pastel pink evoking charm, tenderness, and calm,  Bernhardt’s versions depict him in hot fluorescents, bold plums, mauves, magentas, fuchsias, bubblegums, lavenders—an exploration of the spectrum of pinks that can be mixed from modern-day pigments. 

Bernhardt began painting the Pink Panther after she arrived at the Pink Palace Hotel (also called the Royal Hawai’ian Hotel) located on a sandy beach in Waikiki, Oahu, not far from an eighteen-foot tall bronze sculpture of King Kamehameha I, the greatest Hawai’ian warrior leader who is usually decked out in tons of enormous lei created from eight species of bright pink orchids. The pinkness of this trip continued after she checked into the hotel that featured pink bathroom towels, pink sheets, pink eye masks for sleeping, pink carpeting, pink beach chairs, pink beach towels, pink stationery, pink sunsets, pink pancakes at breakfast, and the Pink Panther on TV screens. After Bernhardt repeatedly watched videos of the panther along with her son while lounging atop their huge pink bed and while strolling around the hotel grounds while her son Khalifa continued to watch Pink Panther videos from a cell phone, she decided that the panther could look great on large-scale canvas too.