Get Smart About Art: Jennifer Packer
April 25, 2022
One of my Design Boot Camp students recently asked me how I know so much about such a wide variety of artists?
Well, it's no secret that I have a passion for art and art history. I love visiting museums and galleries, reading books, taking classes, and learning about art movements and famous artists - both historically important and contemporary.
I thought I'd begin a new occasional series for the blog where I share some of the things that I've learned with you about artists whom I admire. Today, I thought we could take look at the work of contemporary painter, Jennifer Packer.
Here is some of her beautiful artwork:
She talks about her figures "dissolving," and I can see that so clearly.
You can watch this video tour of her exhibit at the Whitney Museum in New York City with curator, Jane Panetta:
You can also listen to an interview with Jennifer Packer herself on the Serpentine Gallery website HERE. In the interview she discusses her work and it's always wonderful to hear straight from the artist.
If an audio interview isn't your thing, the Serpentine Gallery also put together this video (I think they're BOTH worth your time as they're quite different) of Jennifer Packer in her studio in New York:
There was a catalogue of the Serpentine exhibit, but sadly it's sold out.
If you want to buy her work, I believe that her gallerist is Sikkema Jenkins & Co -- a contemporary art gallery in New York City. This is their bio of her:
JENNIFER PACKER
B. 1984
Jennifer Packer creates portraits, interior scenes, and still lifes that suggest a casual intimacy. Packer views her works as the result of an authentic encounter and exchange. The models for her portraits—commonly friends or family members—are relaxed and seemingly unaware of the artist’s or viewer’s gaze.
Packer’s paintings are rendered in loose line and brush stroke using a limited color palette, often to the extent that her subject merges with or retreats into the background. Suggesting an emotional and psychological depth, her work is enigmatic, avoiding a straightforward reading. “I think about images that resist, that attempt to retain their secrets or maintain their composure, that put you to work,” she explains. “I hope to make works that suggest how dynamic and complex our lives and relationships really are.”
Born in 1984 in Philadelphia, Jennifer Packer received her BFA from the Tyler University School of Art at Temple University in 2007, and her MFA from Yale University School of Art in 2012. She was the 2012-2013 Artist-in-Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and a Visual Arts Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, from 2014-2016. Her most recent solo show, Tenderheaded, exhibited at the Renaissance Society, Chicago in the fall of 2017 before travelling to the Rose Museum at Brandeis University in March of 2018. Packer currently lives and works in New York and is an assistant professor in the painting department at RISD.
I think Jennifer Packer's work is stunning. I haven't been lucky enough to see it in person, but I look forward to that opportunity -- especially because of the monumental scale. There are so many small details in her work that take time to digest. I'd love to stand in front of them and breathe it all in.
Let me know your thoughts on Jennifer Packer's artwork.
Thanks for stopping by!