KATHERINE BERNHARDT: PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY

CANADA is excited to present Peanut Butter and Jelly, a solo exhibition of new work by Katherine Bernhardt.

May 15 – June 20, 2026

The show features vividly colored paintings drawn directly from her domestic life in St. Louis. The exhibition takes its title from the familiar comfort food, signaling the artist's enduring interest in the visual and emotional resonance of everyday experience.

Bernhardt's recent work is rooted in the distinctive modernist home she has spent the past five years restoring on Lindell Boulevard, opposite the Missouri History Museum. Originally built in the 1980s and known for its bold, maximalist design, the house now serves as both subject and studio—a total environment where architecture, objects, and lived experience converge. Reimagined by the artist, the space reflects a renewed commitment to color, pattern, and the exuberant visual language of postmodern design.

The paintings in Peanut Butter and Jelly translate this environment into Bernhardt's signature style: flattened compositions, saturated hues, and vivid, often fluorescent outlines. Everyday objects-kitchenware, appliances, packaged goods, and decorative items—are elevated into recurring motifs, drawn from the artist's immediate surroundings. These works capture the energy of a lived-in space, where the ordinary becomes a site of visual intensity and formal experimentation.

Throughout the exhibition, Bernhardt also incorporates portraits of family members and herself, embedding figures within richly detailed interiors. These compositions merge personal narrative with broader art historical references, from portraiture to still life, while maintaining her distinctive voice. Iconic works of art and design— alongside personal collections and furnishings—recur across the canvases, reinforcing the interplay between daily life and cultural memory.

Taken together, the paintings in Peanut Butter and Jelly offer a vivid portrait of an artist's world. Bernhardt's home emerges not simply as a backdrop, but as an active, generative space-one that shapes and reflects her identity as a painter, collector, and observer of contemporary life. The exhibition invites viewers into this environment, where color, repetition, and familiarity coalesce into a dynamic and deeply personal visual language.