Superstructure (2015)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1525 x 1827 x 33 mm
Votive (2015)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1525 x 1825 x 33 mm
South Seas Idol (2015)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 910 x 1675 x 35 mm
Big Top (2015)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 912 x 1120 x 33 mm
Wheel of Fortune (2013/14)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1204 x 1601 x 45 mm
Common Ground (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 913 x 1524 x 34 mm
Big Time (2015)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 912 x 1676 x 33 mm
Legacy (2015)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 912 x 1675 x 33 mm
Harbourside (2015)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 912 x 1523 x 33 mm
Outsource (2015)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1001 x 1676 x 35 mm
The Handiman’s Dream (2014)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 303 x 407 x 37 mm
Cul-de-sac (2014)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 304 x 405 x 37 mm
Roundabout acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 222
Duplex (2014)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 205 x 253 x 38 mm
Compartment Living (2014)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 151 x 207 x 36 mm
Opportunity Awaits (2014)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 202 x 252 x 38 mm
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 208 x 253 x 37 mm
acrylic on canvas,
Bower (2015)
acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 150 x 202 x 37 mm
Sandbagging (2015)
Good acrylic on canvas, stretcher:
Good Little Renter (2015) stretcher: 147 x 204 x 36 mm 18
Handiwork 1 (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 204 x 253 x 38 mm 19
Handiwork 2 (2015) stretcher: 228 x 305 x 37 mm
Networking (2015)
on canvas, stretcher: 204 x 252 x 38 mm
South Seas Idol is an important and thought-provoking exhibition of significant works by painter Jenna Packer. Her graceful, delicate and captivating paintings present worlds of possibilities, complex narratives and constructed histories. She explores the social, political and economic structures that shape the world we live in today, looking locally, nationally and globally. Through her personal vision and rich visual language she paints parallel, post-modern, time-less and time-filled landscapes that expose the ideologies and myths that underpin our belief systems.
In her cinematic scenes, Jenna Packer re-interprets and re-contextualizes historical events, and generates new and alternative narratives and possible futures. Looking regionally, she gives the viewer a flash of what could be and poses universal questions: What happens when the oil runs out? What happens when the environment is no longer sustainable? What happens when the social structures that our contemporary lives are built around, collapse and fail? Will we take what we have learnt from the past, to build a better future?
There is an ongoing interplay between the micro and the macro, the local and the global, the masses and the individual, country and community. In South Seas Idol there are pockets of activity, crowds of people and
detailed architecture, juxtaposed with the vast, ongoing sky and atmospheric mountain ranges. Compositionally, expressive horizontal landscapes move the viewer’s eye across the work in Votive, while the large central monument acts as a visual guide drawing the viewer into the work and thus revealing important detailed subject matter.
Jenna Packer’s unique and well-developed symbolic language is loaded with metaphor and message. Throughout the exhibition we see statues as the purveyors of myth and representations of dominant culture. The sacred head of the bull appropriated from Merrill Lynch’s corporate logo and a symbol of Capitalism, is hoisted upon a Jesus-like figure in Superstructure, while Big Time shows working class figures wading up the Waitaki Valley - a monument to New Zealand’s proud agricultural tradition?
As well as using figurative elements to tell the story, her unique and highly skilled painting technique deepens her narrative. The luminous use of transparent washes allows the white of the canvas to shine through and harks back to Italian fresco techniques of the 14th Century. There is also a clear connection to New Zealand early landscape watercolourists such as Alfred Sharpe, reinforcing that these works are as much about looking at the history of New Zealand as documenting a possible future.
Enchanting yet stirring, representational yet allegorical and observational yet deeply reflective, Jenna Packer’s painting practice is unlike any other artist active in New Zealand. Looking regionally but within a global context, Jenna explores how politics, power and economy, affects contemporary society.
JENNA PACKER
livesWaitati
TheAscensionoftheBankers(2013-14)
Painting metaphorical and alternate histories, Jenna Packer comments on journeys of discovery, evolution, the survival instinct of escape, fragility and the endless possibilities of life.
"Jenna Packer's startling art is unlike that of any other artist active in New Zealand. Her busy, excellently composed scenes depict images of an alternative timeless, time-filled Otago, its coastlines plied with vessels from throughout history and imagination... She gives viewers the feeling of "saudade", that peculiar wistful longing for things that never were but could have been, and lets our minds wander and wonder at this history that may have resulted." (1)
Jenna Packer draws on a lifelong interest in history and the telling of it, and in image making. "I am looking at the past in order to find some clues to what is happening, what to expect and how to live it. This is not just in painting but reading, conversations, thoughts. I keep returning to the period of the 1930’s and to the exodus of people across Europe at the onset on WWII. I want to affirm the fragility and the possibility of life, but the dark shadows which have been in the background – (sometimes as zeppelins or parachutes) keep encroaching further into the pictures." (2)
Graduating from Ilam School of Art in 1988 with a Bachelor Fine Arts, Jenna Packer went on to complete a BA (History) (First-Class Honours) at the University of Canterbury in 1989. Through the 1990’s she continued her education with time spent at Glasgow Print Workshop, Otago Polytechnic, The Slade School of Art (London) & La Rouelle Studio (France). A painter, printmaker and illustrator, Packer has been exhibiting her work since 1990 both within New Zealand and abroad.
(1) JamesDignan,"ArtSeen",OtagoDailyTimes,November2010 (2) JennaPacker,ArtistStatement,2009
JENNA PACKER
livesWaitati
EDUCATION
1996-97 La Rouelle Studio (printmaking), France (3 months total)
1996 (July) The Slade School of Art (Fresco), London
1995 Otago Polytechnic School of Couture (Couture), Dunedin
1992 (March – May) Glasgow Print Workshop (printmaking), Glasgow
1989 BA (History) (First-Class Honours), University of Canterbury, Christchurch
1988 Bachelor Fine Arts, Ilam School of Art, Christchurch
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2015 South Seas Idol, Milford Galleries Dunedin
2014 State of Grace, Jonathan Grant Gallery, Auckland States of Emergency, Milford Galleries Dunedin
2012 Anchored, Milford Galleries Dunedin
2010 Provisioning, Milford Galleries Dunedin
2009 A History of Flight, Milford Galleries Dunedin
2008 Plant, Gallery on Blueskin, Waitati
2007 The Island, Solander, Wellington
2006 The Island, Milnes Court Gallery, Port Chalmers
1995 Imprints, Ground Essence, Dunedin
1994 Moroccan Notebook, Ground Essence, Dunedin Etchings (solo), Ground Essence, Dunedin
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2015 Winter Exhibition, Jonathan Grant Gallery, Auckland
2014 Significant Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin
2013 The Review, milford galleries queenstown
New Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin
The Royal Queenstown Easter Show, milford galleries queenstown
2012 The Surreal, Milford Galleries Dunedin
2009 Southern Landscape, milford galleries queenstown
2008 Etched in Memory, PaperGraphica, Christchurch
Opening, Gallery on Blueskin, Waitati
2007 The Paper Show, The Artists’ Room, Dunedin
Spring Exhibition, Anderson’s Park Art Gallery, Invercargill
The Knowne Worlde Illuminated, Salisbury House Art Gallery, Dunedin Impressed Atatoi, Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, Masterton
2006 ‘10’, The Print-makers’ Studio, Dunedin
1997 Féte de Papier, Maison de Josianne, Génolac, France
1995 Three Printmakers, Salamander Gallery, Christchurch
Fishing for Camels in the Bush, Arthouse Gallery, Dunedin
1994 Exposure II (Invited Dunedin Artists), Applied Art NZ, Christchurch Nakhodka – Dunedin – Otaru, Sister Cities Art Exhibition, Otaru, Japan
Five Printmakers, Left Bank Art Gallery, Greymouth
Women Show, Arthouse Gallery, Dunedin
1990 Printmakers Exhibition, Aigantigue Art Gallery, Timaru
Prints: Jenna Packer and Neave Fraser-Davies, CSA Gallery, Christchurch
COLLECTIONS
The James Wallace Arts Trust
Work held in private collections in NZ, Australia, UK, Canada, France and Italy
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2014 Eggleton, David, ‘Vigilance Lofted High’, Art New Zealand, No. 152, Summer 2014/15, pp76-79
