JENNIFER PACKER

Early Years

Born in Philadelphia in 1984, Jennifer Packer developed an early interest in the arts, eventually earning a BFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 2007. She later completed her MFA at Yale School of Art in 2012. Packer currently lives and works in New York, where she also serves as an assistant professor in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Packer’s early experiences in Philadelphia, combined with her academic training, shaped a practice rooted in intimacy, resistance, and representation. These themes continue to inform her art, which reimagines classical portraiture to centre Black lives and emotions.

Artworks

Jennifer Packer’s artworks sit at the intersection of observational painting and emotive abstraction, bringing together delicate figuration, expressive mark-making, and politically charged content. Her contemporary art practice centres on portraiture and still life, offering intimate yet powerful meditations on memory, mourning, and Black identity.

Portraits Rooted in Care and Community

Portraiture is at the core of Jennifer Packer’s art practice, often featuring close friends, fellow artists, and members of her personal circle. These portraits do more than capture likeness; they convey trust, stillness, and the quiet radical act of visibility. Works such as Tia (2017) and Lost in Translation (2013) demonstrate her ability to create psychologically rich environments through fluid lines and sparse yet intense colour palettes. Rather than dramatic poses or narrative overtures, Packer’s figures appear relaxed, introspective, or caught in thought—subverting historical portrayals of Black bodies in Western art with scenes of tenderness and sovereignty.

Still Lifes as Acts of Remembrance

Packer’s still lifes often incorporate wilting flowers and loosely assembled bouquets—symbols of mourning, transience, and emotional residue. In works such as Say Her Name (2017) and Blessed Are Those Who Mourn (Breonna! Breonna!) (2020), floral arrangements stand in for absent bodies, drawing attention to systemic violence while avoiding sensationalism. These artworks challenge viewers to consider how grief is both personal and political, transforming traditional genres into spaces of resistance and reflection.

Surface, Process, and Unfinished Spaces

A hallmark of Packer’s style is her approach to surface and structure. Working predominantly in oil, she often applies pigment in translucent layers or leaves sections of the canvas partially blank. This restraint creates moments of tension between material presence and absence, reflecting her interest in the incompleteness of memory and the instability of representation. In The Body Has Memory (2018), for example, thin veils of paint create ghostly forms that emerge and dissolve within the same visual field, underscoring the emotional weight behind the image.

Awards and Accolades

Awards and Accolades include:

• Hermitage Greenfield Prize (2022)
• John Kock Award in Art, American Academy of Arts and Letters (2021)
• Nancy B. Negley Prize at the American Academy in Rome (2020-21)
• The Greenfield Prize, Greenfield Foundation, Florida (2020)

Exhibitions

Jennifer Packer has been the subject of both solo exhibitions and group exhibitions at important institutions. Below are some examples.

Solo Exhibitions

• Jennifer Packer: The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing, Serpentine Galleries, London (2020) (Travelled to: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2021–2022))
• Jennifer Packer: Every Shut Eye Ain’t Sleep, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles (2021)
• Jennifer Packer: Tenderheaded, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University (2018)

Group Exhibitions

• Edges of Ailey, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2024-2025)
• The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK (2024). Travelled to: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2024-2025)
• Friends & Lovers, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY (2023–2024)
• Thin Skin, Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), Melbourne, Australia (2023)
• La Vie en Rose. Brueghel, Monet, Twombly, Museum Brandhorst, Munich (2023)
• Whitney Biennial 2019, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2019)

Critical Reception

Packer’s practice has been covered in leading contemporary art publications, including Cultured Mag, Ocula, The Brooklyn Rail, and The New York Times.

Jennifer Packer FAQs

Misong Kim | Ocula | 2025