Rainier Bernhardt is a multimedia artist based in New York's capital region. Their body of work encompasses cut-paper illustrations, paper sculpture, watercolor paintings, and ink drawings. Rainier's unique background of employment in the natural sciences and passion for meticulous destruction combine to create delicate paper imagery of animal forms that explore themes of beauty and grief. 

Heavily influenced by scientific illustration and printmaking techniques, their ink drawings center around multiplicities of animal forms to explore juxtapositions of visual and physical texture. 

Rainier earned their Bachelor’s in Studio Art from Skidmore College, and received Skidmore’s Student Opportunity Fund grant for their senior thesis project. They have been teaching workshops at the Arts Center of the Capital Region since the fall of 2022, and recently won a grant through the Arts Center that will allow their design to be publicly displayed on an electric box downtown. Rainier is one of the Artists in Residence at Arlene’s Art Supply for the 2024-25 season.