I've Come Back Once Again With Another Tale

About

FIRST STREET GALLERY is pleased to announce Kathi Packer's 10th First Street Gallery solo exhibition, I'VE COME BACK ONCE AGAIN WITH ANOTHER TALE, opening on September 5th through September 28th, 2024. Her most recent interpretive and expressive oil paintings convey an enduring and deep attachment to the Serengeti. 

I'VE COME BACK ONCE AGAIN WITH ANOTHER TALE continues Packer's nearly 20 year interest in Africa's Serengeti, now visualized as abstracted forms from nature and the rich hues of tribal textiles. Hard edged shapes in this new work reflect Packer's recent exploration of paper collage during Covid which informs her invented imagery for the Serengeti sky, Kopjes rock formations, and Black Thorned Acacia trees.

This exhibition features 15 large oil paintings and several smaller works, all on cradled birch panel. The prepared surface plays a large part in Packer's process. The artist stains and paints areas of the panels while selectively exposing the white of the prepared board. Lyrical and vigorous brush strokes offer a counterpoint to her geometric shapes. Packer uses the whiteness of the panel as part of her palette which requires some forethought in the process. At the same time, the artist stains areas with vibrant color and allows each layer and stroke to be visible. This layering requires the artist to work on several images at once with a sense of immediacy in each stroke and layer. "Sometimes it means wiping out a day's work to preserve a sense of immediacy in the painting. Other times, I leave the history to create visual depth."

Kathi Packer has exhibited throughout New England and abroad. Her work is held in permanent collections such as The New Britain Museum of American Art, Galeria Nacional de Costa Rica, The University of Connecticut School of Medicine, The Phoenix Corporation, Hartford Hospital, and in private collections throughout the United States and in Paris. She has received numerous awards for painting as well as fellowship grants from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and from The Greater Hartford Arts Council. Packer's painting, Stubb's Curiosity, is prominently featured in the publication Zebra by British authors Christopher Plumb and Samuel Shaw. Her work also appears in Volume 1 and 36 (2018) of Studio Visit Magazine. For more information:  https://www.kathipacker.com