FIRST STREET GALLERY is pleased to present new works by Kathi Packer from March 27th through April 21st, 2018.

In her exhibition titled, Equilibrium, Packer revisits the singular relationship between habitat and wildlife in the context of Africa’s Sub-Sahara migration. Where in earlier works, she had explored uncertain and apocalyptic threats to natural harmony, Packer now paints elegiac tableaux of what should have been cherished and protected, an Eden past.

Packer’s focus is centered on the idea of balance, navigating 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 a herd of zebra blends so that there is no beginning or end. In the high grass, stripes are mistaken for shadow and sunlight. A mass of wildebeest mimics dark blue spheres of rain. At other times, wildlife is subtly revealed; their shapes woven into a web of vegetation, barely distinguishable from their surroundings. She continues to build on her narrative of invented scenarios touching on realism.