Katherine Bernhardt’s mural on a building in St. Louis that she bought to store her artwork.
Photo credit: Elizabeth Bernhardt.
Katherine Bernhardt spent part of the quarantine stranded (happily) in Guatemala. She is back at the home and studio in Brooklyn, but stores some of her artwork in a building that she bought in her hometown of St. Louis.
Bernhardt painted a mural on the side of the building that was whitewashed by a city-affiliated graffiti removal program, even though the artist painted the work on her own property.
On a happier note, Bernhardt and her son were walking down Broadway last year and happened upon the building that is currently housing the Sloomoo Institute…a project that donates money to three mental health charities - NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), Sad Girls Club, and Love is Louder.
The Sloomoo Institute is a place where people go to play with slime, a healing, stress-relieving activity. (The name Sloomoo comes from something that avid slimers do. They replace the vowels in their name with "oo" to get their "slime name".)
Bernhardt was asked to collaborate with the Institute and come up with a slime design that would be fun and could be sold in their shop.
What Bernhardt and the team came up with is a watermelon-scented slime with little black beads that look like seeds. A clay-slime watermelon slice on a stick gets squishy when it's dipped into the slime, which is topped with an avocado, a banana and watermelon slices. The work was released for purchase on July 20, 2020.
Alex Katz in Shanghai
Alex Katz has always marched to a different drummer, creating his unique style that has become sleeker and even more refined during his long and flourishing career.
His portraits and sculptures of family and friends, the landscapes done around his summer home in Maine, have been the foundation of works for more than seventy years.
He has influenced many artists, but was never one to be influenced by current trends. His resolve didn't make him popular in the 1950s and '60s, but it has paid off and he has earned the status of one of America's greatest artists.
The Alex Katz exhibit at the Fosun Foundation in Shanghai will run through August 9, 2020.
Works by Katherine Bernhardt and Alex Katz at VFA
Please contact us if you would like more information about the works of Katherine Bernhardt, Alex Katz or any of the other featured artworks at VFA.
Erin Heffernan. Artist's Black Lives Matter mural is whitewashed by city contractor. St. Louis Post-Dispatch. July 21, 2020.
How Slime Became a Signature Motif for Katherine Bernhardt. Cultured Magazine. July 21, 2020.
Katy Hamer. Interview: Artist Katherine Bernhardt on her Slimy Collaboration with NYC's Sloomoo Institute. Cool Hunting. July 21, 2020.
Murray Whyte. How the Maine coastline shaped the painter Alex Katz. The Boston Globe. June 26, 2020.
