JENNA PACKER

JE NNA PACKE R South Seas Idol

1 - 26 August 2015 www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

Milford Galleries Dunedin 18 Dowling Street (03) 477 7727 info@milfordhouse.co.nz

Superstructure (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1525 x 1827 x 33 mm

1

Votive (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1525 x 1825 x 33 mm

2

South Seas Idol (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 910 x 1675 x 35 mm

3

Big Top (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 912 x 1120 x 33 mm

4

Wheel of Fortune (2013/14) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1204 x 1601 x 45 mm

5

Common Ground (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 913 x 1524 x 34 mm

6

Big Time (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 912 x 1676 x 33 mm

7

Legacy (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 912 x 1675 x 33 mm

8

Harbourside (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 912 x 1523 x 33 mm

9

Outsource (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 1001 x 1676 x 35 mm

10

Cul-de-sac (2014) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 304 x 405 x 37 mm

11

The Handiman’s Dream (2014) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 303 x 407 x 37 mm

12

Duplex (201 acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 205 x 253 x 38 m

Roun acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 222

14) mm

13

ndabout (2014) 2 x 306 x 36 mm

15

Opportunity Awaits (2014) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 202 x 252 x 38 mm

14

Compartment Living (2014) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 151 x 207 x 36 mm

16

Sandbagging (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 208 x 253 x 37 mm

Bower (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 150 x 202 x 37 mm

17

Goo acrylic on canvas, stretch

20

acrylic on canvas, s

od Little Renter (2015) her: 147 x 204 x 36 mm

Handiwork 1 (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 204 x 253 x 38 mm

18

Handiwork 2 (2015) stretcher: 228 x 305 x 37 mm

21

19

Networking (2015) acrylic on canvas, stretcher: 204 x 252 x 38 mm

22

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.

EXHIBITION PRICELIST 1

Superstructure (2015)

12,500

2

Votive (2015)

12,500

3

South Seas Idol (2015)

8,000

4

Big Top (2015)

6,000

5

Wheel of Fortune (2013/14)

9,500

6

Common Ground (2015)

7,500

7

Big Time (2015)

8,000

8

Legacy (2015)

8,000

9

Harbourside (2015)

7,500

10

Outsource (2015)

8,000

11

Cul-de-sac (2014)

1,250

12

The Handiman's Dream (2014)

1,250

13

Duplex (2014)

950

14

Roundabout (2014)

950

15

Opportunity Awaits (2014)

950

16

Compartment Living (2014)

600

17

Sandbagging (2015)

750

18

Good Little Renter (2014)

600

19

Handiwork 1 (2015)

750

20

Bower (2015)

600

21

Handiwork 2 (2015)

750

22

Networking (2015)

750

All prices are NZD and include GST; Prices are current at the time of the exhibition

JENNA PACKER lives Waitati

The Ascension of the Bankers (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) (2)

James Dignan, "Art Seen", Otago Daily Times, November 2010 Jenna Packer, Artist Statement, 2009

Jenna Packer 2015 CV P a g e |1

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

JENNA PACKER lives Waitati EDUCATION 1996-97 1996 1995 1992 1989 1988

La Rouelle Studio (printmaking), France (3 months total) (July) The Slade School of Art (Fresco), London Otago Polytechnic School of Couture (Couture), Dunedin (March – May) Glasgow Print Workshop (printmaking), Glasgow BA (History) (First-Class Honours), University of Canterbury, Christchurch Bachelor Fine Arts, Ilam School of Art, Christchurch

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2015 2014 2012 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 1995 1994

South Seas Idol, Milford Galleries Dunedin State of Grace, Jonathan Grant Gallery, Auckland States of Emergency, Milford Galleries Dunedin Anchored, Milford Galleries Dunedin Provisioning, Milford Galleries Dunedin A History of Flight, Milford Galleries Dunedin Plant, Gallery on Blueskin, Waitati The Island, Solander, Wellington The Island, Milnes Court Gallery, Port Chalmers Imprints, Ground Essence, Dunedin Moroccan Notebook, Ground Essence, Dunedin Etchings (solo), Ground Essence, Dunedin

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2015 2014 2013

2012 2009 2008 2007

2006 1997 1995 1994

1990

Winter Exhibition, Jonathan Grant Gallery, Auckland Significant Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin The Review, milford galleries queenstown New Works, Milford Galleries Dunedin The Royal Queenstown Easter Show, milford galleries queenstown The Surreal, Milford Galleries Dunedin Southern Landscape, milford galleries queenstown Etched in Memory, PaperGraphica, Christchurch Opening, Gallery on Blueskin, Waitati 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 ‘10’, The Print-makers’ Studio, Dunedin Féte de Papier, Maison de Josianne, Génolac, France Three Printmakers, Salamander Gallery, Christchurch Fishing for Camels in the Bush, Arthouse Gallery, Dunedin 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 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

Jenna Packer 2015 CV P a g e |2

Milford Galleries Dunedin

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz