Jenna Packer

Jenna Packer graduated from Ilam School of Fine Arts in 1988 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, then went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in History at the University of Canterbury. Through the 1990’s she lived in the UK and Morocco, and for several years in France. She spent time at the Glasgow Print Workshop, The Slade School of Art in London and La Rouelle Studio in France.

Jenna Packer is a full time artist now living in Waitati, Otago, and has been exhibiting her work since 1990 both within Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad. She has been involved in several artist research trips and projects, including Paradise Lost, with Solander Gallery in 2018, which saw her work touring New Zealand, Australia, Sweden and Iceland, and The Water Project, with Ashburton Art Gallery which toured the country in 2018 and 2019.
Packer frequently engages in discussion and presentations of her work in climate and environmental forums, having an active interest in social history and the politics of climate change. Her work is held in private collections in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Italy. During 2024, Toro, a major exhibition of her work was hosted at Ashburton Art Gallery.

‘Packer imagines a post-capitalist future that is eminently credible, where people subsist in campsites put together with leftovers from the age of consumerism – old cars and plastic tarpaulins for shelter, white plastic chairs, metal drums for lighting fires in’. -Edward Hanfling, Art New Zealand

Exhibitions:
2025 – Paper Road