Artist Profile

Kathi Packer is best known for her oil paintings of African wildlife and habitat. She has traveled several times to Tanzania and Kenya to photograph and videotape her chosen subject matter, migrating Zebra and Wildebeest.

Her style navigates a taut line between abstraction and representation, one that in a way mirrors, metaphorically, the appearance and disappearance of her chosen subject matter. Hidden in plain sight Zebra blend so that there is no beginning or end. In the high grass, stripes are mistaken for shadow and sunlight, woven into a web of vegetation, barely distinguishable from their surroundings.

Packer’s color embraces painters such as Matisse and Diebenkorn but borrows heavily from tribal hues of red, orange, blue and violet in contrast with Serengeti greens and golds. Her palette is a stew where the landscape and Zebra can be pink or green. They share the same hue and fate in the recognition of uncertain and apocalyptic threats to this natural harmony.

Tour Location: Arbor Arts Center 3rd Floor #314 - Weekend #1

Email: kpackerstudio@gmail.com

Website: www.kathipacker.com

Click here to see the 25th Anniversary Video Retrospective produced by CT Public Broadcasting!