“Cindy Bernhard Takes Us to Church”

‘When Cindy Bernhard found the cats she found herself. That is the short summary of the story. During the pandemic, and years of trying to find her artistic voice, Chicago-based Bernhard painted a cat in her work and found that voice, that direction, that narrative, the character that was her but also something so universal. The cats aren't just lying about, they are sleekily wandering beautiful rooms, hiding behind beautiful objects, with candles and purple and the night as the backdrop. They are inquisitive and curious, much like Bernhard herself. 

On the eve of her solo show Take Me to Church at Richard Heller Gallery, Radio Juxtapoz sat down with Bernhard to discuss religion, growing up on a farm, a brief move to Los Angeles, finding a home in Chicago and how the cats and the candles made it into her work.’

Click to listen to Radio Juxtapoz, Episode 139, Cindy Bernhard

New American Paintings, Issue 167 , cover artist

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‘One of the Chicago-based artists featured in this issue is painter Cindy Bernhard. I first encountered her work in a small group show several years ago, although she first began exhibiting in 2010. In the past two years, interest in Bernhard’s practice has taken a dramatic upswing; as I write these words, her work is the focus of a successful solo exhibition at Monya Rowe Gallery in New York City.

There is a lot of window dressing in the art world, but, ultimately, the work is the most important element. Artists must have not only ideas worthy of exploring but also the technical and conceptual abilities to generate meaningful content from those ideas; simply put, the work needs to be “there”.

For artists such as Bernhard and many others, the timing is precisely right; and what they have to say is presently relevant. I don’t think you can force this in any art form…sometimes the world is ready for your vision and sometimes it is not. I am a big believer that if an artist’s practice is significant, the world will catch up.’

Steven Zevitas, Publisher and Editor

Artnet - Dealer Monya Rowe on the ‘Naivete and Chutzpah’ That Has Made Her New York Gallery a Standout for 20 Years

“Holy Smokes,” an exhibition of works by artist Cindy Bernhard, inaugurated in the new venue. Bernhard’s iridescent, nocturnal paintings have something aptly ceremonial about them—the saucer-eyed cats with shiny, thick coats that haunt these canvases are accompanied by luminous mirrors seemingly plucked from fairy tales, as well as glowing candles, that are seemingly metamorphic in their melting forms. One could imagine the show as a kind of ritual mass, blessing the space.”

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New York Magazine - The Approval Matrix

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Broccoli Issue 16

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Maake Issue 13 Curated by Tyler Lafreniere

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London Paint Club “Our Top 10 Paintings from NADA New York

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Cindy Bernhard’s “Smoke and Prayers” is on View at Richard Heller Gallery —by Shawn Ghassemitari

“Spooky dreamscapes that invite us to slow down.

Cindy Bernhard is a Chicago-based artist with a spooky aesthetic. Working across mediums, such as air-brushed veneers, oils and pastels, she creates superflat dreamscapes that invite us to slow down and take in the peculiarities of daily life.

Bernhard has just unveiled a new solo exhibition entitled, “Smoke and Prayers” at Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica. Quickly one can detect the artist’s penchant for humor and irony through symbolic juxtapositions, such as those used in her painting, Joints and Jesus. “This structure allows me to access viewers through empathy and humor,” said Bernhard in a past statement. However, the artist does not use humor simply as comedy relief, but rather as a “political response and act of resistance to pop culture’s demanding aesthetics,” she added.” —Shawn Ghassemitari

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Cindy Bernhard’s “Smoke and Prayers” @ Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica —by Gwynned Vitello

“Cindy Bernhard paints smoke and mirrors, and we love the clever deception. Welcome to her world of super-flat pictures and air-brushed veneers, then swim into those ombre gradations of pastel hues and dive into the dreamscapes. Raised on a hog farm in rural Illinois and now calling Chicago home, as student, studio assistant and teacher, she makes her magic with a wealth of perspective. Bernhard’s seamless depictions of the duality of life, sly humor and satiny sense of color invites viewers to slow down and embrace the wonders of life, including the delicious irony. She has painted mysterious rooms and hallways, but maybe her favorite ciphers are dogs and cats. 

“This structure allows me to access viewers through empathy and humor. I use humor not merely as relief, but also as a political response and act of resistance to pop culture’s demanding aesthetics.” Bernhard’s first solo exhibit, Smoke and Prayers, wafting in a slow simmer of reflection and the crackle of humor that ignites all of her paintings, opens in September at Santa Monica’s Richard Heller Gallery. Just as smoke is the transition of matter into spirit, Joints and Jesus is a prayerful and playful appreciation of life, “visual poems,” as she calls them—whether or not you’re a cat person.”  —Gwynned Vitello

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Richard Heller Gallery is pleased to announce its first solo exhibition with Chicago-based painter, Cindy Bernhard —by Morgan Meis

"What can painting still do in 2021, you might ask. At the hands of Cindy Bernhard, almost anything. Bernhard, like all true painters, is in love with the pure sensuality of pigments, the visceral effects of paint upon the canvas. You see this in the stunning color of the paintings, but also in the patterns and shapes.

Joints and Jesus (2021), at first appears to be a cute and cheeky portrayal of a cat captured in an act of genital licking through the reflection of a mirror on a mantelpiece. It's a clever painting within a painting, a trope you might find in Van Eyck or Vermeer. It is only with further reflection (pun intended) that we realize this is an altarpiece. The smoke of the “holy incense” is provided by a joint smoldering at the center of the picture.

Another startled cat, this critter with one blue and one yellow eye, meets our gaze in Momento Mori (2021). The joke here is that it's the joint that's died, the head of which has fallen from the table and is burning out on the beautifully painted carpet beneath. The cat alerts us to the problem, made all the more dire by the amusing presence of a classic memento mori skull at the far end of a pastel blue table. But you might also argue that the real memento mori in this picture is the pink butthole of the startled cat. That's to say, this is a painting of dualisms, of the dark that always comes with the light, of the corruption at the heart of all beauty, of the inevitable passing away of all that seems vibrant and new.

The paintings of Cindy Bernhard are veritably crackling with tensions, with a palpable sense of mystery that is all the more delectable for being suffused with such a lightly and confidently wielded wit and charm. You're struck initially by these paintings because they are daring and fresh and a treat for the eye. You stay with them because they are genuinely deep." —Morgan Meis

Meet the Maker Cindy Bernhard—by Kelsey Ogletree

Smoke and Prayers @ Richard Heller Gallery —by Peter Frank

“Cindy Bernhard’s glowing, charming, witty, slightly spooky, knowingly corny pictures are a good foil for Sasha Pierce’s jagged, rhythmic abstractions, and vice versa. Torontonian Pierce actually imbues her fierce structures with the same tenebrous luminosity as Chicago-based Bernhard gets from her limpid sunsets and cozy, incense-stick-lit interiors. Pierce’s secret sauce is her engagement of traditional Japanese patterning, or Wagara. Bernhard’s is those cartoony cats whose saucer-wide eyes recall Margaret Keane and ‘60s kitsch. The energy flow between the two highly crafted exhibitions is as smooth as it is powerful.” —Peter Frank

60wrd/min COVID Edition: Cindy Bernhard —by Lori Waxman

“A recent study confirmed that watching internet videos of cute animals can reduce anxiety. Where does that leave painting? If the iridescent, pet-filled canvases of Cindy Bernhard are any indication, the medium holds up just fine. Bernhard makes mostly large, complex oil pictures with the compositional care of a Dutch Renaissance interior scene and the style sense of a millennial crafter. Like in Photoshop or an iPhone screen, everything is super-flat; backgrounds come in shades of airbrushed rainbow gradient; decorative patterns are infinite and overlapping; eighties chic is apparent and unstoppable; aspirational marble table tops make their de rigueur appearance. Living amid these Instagrammable scenes are curious orange tabbies, adorable wrinkly pugs and plenty other breeds of small pet, lounging on special pillows, staring out from framed photos and, in the case of one cat, showing its little pink butthole. Being of Generation X, some of these juxtapositions confuse my native ability to recognize kitsch and deal with it ironically. I realize, however, that this is my problem, and that it is probably getting in the way of some much-needed stress relief.” —Lori Waxman

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Cindy Bernhard @ Shelter In Place Gallery

“Who's ready for some closeups?! One of my favorite aspects of these paintings is that the directionality of light in them mimics the light in the gallery, creating a further sense of depth and layered intricacy. They are windows upon windows, digging further into the domestic space within the bounds of the canvas. The duel flattening of the perspective while elongating the field with light is both visually confusing and exciting. And who can say no to candy corn and blunts on the porch?” —Shelter in Place Gallery

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New American Paintings - Cindy Bernhard Editor’s Pick of The Day

Art Top 5: October 2019 —by Kerry Cardoza

Newcity named “Terrain Biennial” as one of the top 5 exhibitions to see this October.

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Skin Deep: A Review of Serious Vanity at One After 909 —by Chris Miller

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BAD AT SPORTS Top Weekend Picks (7/18 - 7/24)

BAD AT SPORTS blog featured Serious Vanity at One After 909 as a top weekend pick.

‘Cindy Bernhard - Calling Attention To Illusionistic Form’ —by Chester Alamo-Costello.

“Cindy Bernhard is in the process of establishing a solid foundation in her painting career. Through addressing topical content and experimentation, she has built a series of works that offer insight into contemporaneous modes of self-portrayal by way of humor, illusion, symbolism, and tactile technique. This week the COMP Magazine took the Rock Island Metra down to Beverly to discuss with Bernhard the role art played in her youth, why painting is her medium of choice, the various techniques she employs to create illusion on a 2-dimensional surface, and her role as educator.” —Chester Alamo-Costello

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BAD AT SPORTS Top Weekend Picks (1/10 - 1/16)

BAD AT SPORTS blog featured Material Objectivity at Baby Blue Gallery as a top weekend pick.