Katherine Bernhardt�s paintings embody cosmopolitan edginess. Her lush canvases � which themselves pose as the currency of beguiling luxury � incorporate all the fantasy trappings of seduction, decadence and corruption, each charged with sordid soap operatic climax and the command of true-to-type bitches and divas. Looming larger than life, Bernhardt�s demoiselles flaunt exaggerated tales of womanly wiles: a tribe of Amazonian it-girls, goddesses, and super-heroines languishing in the ennui of money, power, and style.