Jennifer Packer: The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing

The Whitney Museum to host Jennifer Packer‘s first solo exhibition in New York: “The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing”. Following the Serpentine Gallery in London, the exhibition travels to New York: it is the largest survey of Packer’s work to date, with over 30 drawings and paintings from the last decade that examine the practices of observation, memory, and improvisation.

The artist paints images of family, friends, and flowers that, through portraiture, symbolise the desire to be seen, fidelity, and freedom. Many of Packer’s portraits show a “casual intimacy”where the subject seems unaware of being observed. Packer can fuse these traditional processes with her personal experiences, in particular inequality against the black community.

The exhibition’s title refers to Ecclesiastes 1:8 and indicates the idea of an insatiable desire for knowledge through sensory experience and the significance of witnessing. Packer’s exploration of the art historical genres of portraiture and still life is also intertwined with the politics of representation, which fuels the sense of recognition that she seeks in her work.