A Match Made in Heaven: Katherine Bernhardt x Jeremy Scott

On view February 7 through August 3, 2025

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Save the dates for our public online artists talk and Nerman Museum member opportunities on Thursday, February 6, 2025, and our gala on Saturday, May 10, 2025.

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American fashion designer Jeremy Scott (b. 1975, Kansas City, Missouri) and contemporary artist Katherine Bernhardt (b. 1975, St. Louis, Missouri) are both known for their creative work that engages with themes of consumer and popular culture and irreverent humor. This exhibition presents looks by Scott and paintings by Bernhardt, creating a dynamic pop culture extravaganza. They are two elite artists working in disparate mediums who transform the mundane into the spectacular.

The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art is proud to present the first exhibition to explore the shared references that unites Bernhardt’s paintings and Scott’s iconic fashion looks. Bernhardt is known for her colorful, energetic canvases that juxtapose symbols of everyday life, such as Windex, the golden arches of McDonalds, and Lucky Charms cereal, with imagery sourced from pop culture, such as the Simpsons characters, E.T., and the Pink Panther. The symbols are repeated as motifs, resulting in patterned paintings that elevate kitsch into high art. Scott’s fashion designs, created for the Italian design house Moschino (2013-2023), adidas, and for his namesake brand, Jeremy Scott, adapt pop culture iconography into haute couture. His designs have been worn by celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Miley Cyrus, Madonna, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and Rihanna, all of whom understand and appreciate his cheeky humor and of-the-moment references. Scott is also the subject of a 2015 documentary by Vlad Yudin, titled “Jeremy Scott: The People’s Designer,” which features cameos from many of his pop star friends.

At the heart of Bernhardt’s and Scott’s work are questions such as: who determines what is high or low art? What happens when ubiquitous consumer products are re-branded into art and fashion? Are they examples of sophisticated satire, or a more dramatic upending of bourgeois standards of decorum and beauty?

A Match Made in Heaven provides an opportunity for JCCC students in the Fashion Design & Merchandising Program and Fine Art + Design Studios, as well as residents of Johnson County and the greater Kansas City region to study the contributions of these two masters from the Midwest.