A groundbreaking collaboration between contemporary art and high fashion is currently captivating visitors at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, Kansas. The exhibition "A Match Made in Heaven: Katherine Bernhardt x Jeremy Scott" brings together the vibrant pop art paintings of Missouri-based artist Katherine Bernhardt with the extravagant fashion designs of world-renowned designer Jeremy Scott, creating what many describe as a perfect artistic partnership.
The concept for this unique exhibition emerged from JoAnne Northrup, executive director and chief curator of the Nerman Museum, located on the Johnson County Community College campus in the metropolitan Kansas City area. Northrup initially sought to create a collaboration with the college's fashion merchandising and design department when Jeremy Scott's name surfaced as a natural choice. The internationally acclaimed fashion designer, who currently helms the luxury label Moschino, is considered a hometown hero in the region.
The decision to pair Scott's work with Katherine Bernhardt's art came after Northrup had recently visited the St. Louis-based painter's studio. When approached with the proposal for a two-person exhibition, Bernhardt immediately embraced Scott's designs. "Everything just aligned," Northrup explained, describing how the collaboration developed organically and intuitively.
The exhibition features an impressive scale and scope, displaying nearly 40 large-scale paintings by Bernhardt alongside more than 500 designs by Scott. Among Scott's contributions are 200 sneakers he created for Adidas, representing three decades of his fashion career. The visual presentation creates what visitors describe as a "cacophony of bright neon colors, kitsch, textures, and pop iconography" that borders on sensory overload while celebrating maximalist aesthetics.
Both artists share a fascination with American consumer culture and pop iconography, particularly focusing on junk food imagery. Bernhardt's massive paintings, created with brightly colored, thinned-out acrylics complete with artistic drips, feature stream-of-consciousness combinations of seemingly unrelated objects. Her canvases showcase cartoonish renderings of everyday items: Windex bottles paired with cigarettes, Cheetos alongside the Pink Panther, Diet Coke bottles floating next to mushrooms, and various other consumer products suspended in artistic space.
Scott's fashion designs demonstrate his "droll genius" through meticulous attention to detail in accessories and garments that mirror Bernhardt's pop culture obsessions. His creations include purses shaped like vinyl pizza boxes, hats designed as mustard squeeze-bottle caps, and shoes textured with lettuce leaves. The designer's exploration of junk food themes manifests in clothing featuring Cheetos, hamburgers, French fries, and candy bars.
The exhibition layout reflects the collaborative spirit between the artists. Northrup allowed both Bernhardt and Scott significant freedom in arranging their works, promoting their shared aesthetics while encouraging creative juxtapositions. Bernhardt's paintings were installed first across four galleries, taking up most of the wall space. Scott then spent several days studying her work in the gallery before arriving with his 30-year fashion collection, including his 10-year tenure at Moschino.
The resulting arrangements create both obvious and subtle connections between the artworks. Some juxtapositions are straightforward, such as placing Scott's dress featuring Hershey Kiss motifs directly alongside Bernhardt's painting of the chocolates. One of the exhibition's highlights features Scott's outrageous hamburger dress, famously worn by Katy Perry at the 2019 Met Gala afterparty, positioned next to Bernhardt's painting of McDonald's golden arches.
Visitors navigate through clusters of up to three mannequins positioned around paintings, with additional pieces spilling into the center of the galleries. The playful combinations often elicit laughter from museum-goers, particularly when encountering pairings like an oversized, caramel-colored prescription bottle-shaped purse placed next to a painting of Xanax pills.
The exhibition successfully demonstrates how fashion and art can blend effortlessly when artists share similar sensibilities. The pairing amplifies both artists' irreverence and humor while showcasing their mutual fascination with American consumer culture. According to Northrup, the natural compatibility between Katherine Bernhardt and Jeremy Scott makes their artistic intertwining feel both natural and "divine."
"A Match Made in Heaven: Katherine Bernhardt x Jeremy Scott" continues at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art through October 26. The exhibition, located at 12345 College Boulevard in Overland Park, Kansas, represents a successful model for how contemporary art institutions can bridge different creative disciplines while celebrating shared artistic visions.
