AS GALLERIES open up again in the wake of lockdown 2.0, the Serpentine will exhibit Jennifer Packer’s The Eye is Not Satisfied with Seeing, an exhibition which deals with ideas around care, racial politics and representation. This exhibition is made up of a selection of he paintings and drawings from the last decade; Packer’s first European show. Of her work Packer says, “My inclination to paint, especially from life, is a completely political one. We belong here. We deserve to be seen and acknowledged in real time. We deserve to be heard and to be imaged with shameless generosity and accuracy.”
Her paintings are emotional; characterised by the sweeping, or dabbing marks of her hand and rich, warm colour palettes. Her portraits are intimate, often depicting her friends and family, but each is a fierce act of what she describes as “testimony” in the face of a white washed art history.
Jennifer Packer, Jess, 2018 Oil on canvas, in collection of Ursula Burns, Photo: Jason Wyche
The exhibition is also populated by Packer’s flower paintings, works which draw on the Dutch tradition of “vanitas” paintings, which addressed the fragility of life. For, beyond acknowledging black lives being lived, Packer works to properly memorialise black lives which have been lost. Her work, Say Her Name was produced in response to the death of Sandra Bland in prison, in prison, three days after being arrested.
Jennifer Packer, Say Her Name, 2017 Oil on canvas, Courtesy: The Artist, Corvi-Mora, London
and Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York. Photograph: Matt Grubb
The Body Has Memory, 2018 Oil on canvas, in collection of Miyoung Lee & Neil Simpkins.
Photograph: Jason Wyche
The themes of Packer’s work are vital: the act of care, the practice of acknowledgement, the politicisation of art; these are all of great importance in the wake of mass support of Black Lives Matter protests and Covid-19. It is poignant that such an exhibition is open to visitors as we ease out of lockdown and into tiered restrictions, for Packer explores precisely the emotional and political attitudes which we must now address.
by Connie de Pelet