伯恩哈特在成年後將 E.T. 融入自己的作品之中,為畫作注入了懷舊的力量和個人歷史的情感。此外,伯恩哈特的創作以自己的獨特方式借鑑了波普文化圖像的精華,通過下筆快速、充滿動感的美學風格重新塑造了 E. T. 的形象。正如《紐約時報》的羅貝塔·史密斯所說,「伯恩哈特女士塑造的 E. T. 形象龐大且遺世獨立,往往使用金色或銀色噴漆來勾勒輪廓,總是抬著閃閃發光的手指,以示祈福,仿若一幅聖像。她喚起了電影中的畫面,以自己的方式重新演繹,使這些畫面彷彿似曾相識,就好像《聖經》中的某些場景那樣。」ii
Katherine Bernhardt, whether in her paintings or make-shift Moroccan rugs, is rapt by neons and geometries. The artist, who works in New York, takes an almost hasty-flick of a brushstroke that lands as a jagged architectural form — figures cut in space and in buzzing colors that leave a mental trace.
Seemingly each month, multiple galleries, museums or art fairs across the world exhibit Bernhardt's large-scale fantasies and rug-centric installations, as seen in 2017 at Art Basel and with a solo retrospective at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth. "I think the best painters don't intellectualize their own art—they just make stuff," she says; but with sharks circling trash in the water in today's climate, as is depicted in Sharks, Toilet Paper and Plantains, it's not hard to see Bernhardt's deeper meanings.