Jennifer Packer: Quality of Life

JENNIFER PACKER QUALITY OF LIFE November 29, 2018 - January 19, 2019

JENNIFER PACKER QUALITY OF LIFE November 29, 2018 - January 19, 2019

SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO.

530 WEST 22ND STREET NEW YORK, NY 10011 TEL 212 929 2262 WWW.SIKKEMAJENKINSCO.COM

Jennifer Packer’s painted figures and still lifes are exceptional for their expressive fields of color, worked tenderly by the artist’s hand. They are images made with the utmost care–for the subject, and for the artist herself.

Packer’s subjects are often friends and family, loved ones who serve as an emotive force in her life. Her representations critique the positionality, autonomy and power of the marginalized subject. Her work intends to address the primacy of the gaze within painting as a locus for accountability and representation. In Packer’s work, distinct features fade against the color of their environment, creating a protective distance between the direct gaze of the viewer and the subject’s interiority.

The floral still lifes echo the same fragility and tenderness of life expressed in her portraits.

Situated within the historical tradition of still life painting, Packer’s floral images are concerned chiefly with painting as a language for the transmission of information through touch; a delicate working of the painted medium in response to loss and trauma. Packer’s flowers serve as an act of grief, commemoration, and healing.

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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.

6 Jennifer Packer’s first solo museum show, Tenderheaded, was exhibited at The Renaissance Society, Chicago in September 2017 before traveling to the Rose Museum at Brandeis University in March 2018. The catalogue that accompanied the exhibition includes a conversation between Packer and Kerry James Marshall, essays by Jessica Bell Brown and April Freely, a poem by Safiya Sinclair, and an introduction by curator Solveig Øvstebø.

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The Body has Memory, 2018 Oil on canvas 60 x 48 inches (152.4 x 121.9 cm)

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Laquan (2), 2018 Oil on canvas 60 x 48 inches (152.4 x 121.9 cm)

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Laquan (1), 2018 Oil on canvas 60 x 50 inches (152.4 x 127 cm)

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Cheyenne, 2018 Oil on canvas 40 x 40 inches (101.6 x 101.6 cm)

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Jess, 2018 Oil on canvas 30 x 24 inches (76.2 x 61 cm)

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Untitled, 2018 Charcoal on paper 48.125 x 28.75 inches (122.2 x 73 cm)

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A Conversation, 2018 Oil on canvas 12 x 6 inches (30.5 x 15.2 cm)

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Exile of the Body, 2018 Oil on canvas 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm)

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It’s Expensive to be Poor, 2018 Oil on canvas 36 x 36 inches (91.4 x 91.4 cm)

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The Eye is Not Satisfied with Seeing, 2018 Oil on canvas 18 x 38 inches (45.7 x 96.5 cm)

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Untitled, 2018 Oil on canvas 18 x 23.875 inches (45.7 x 60.6 cm)

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Citizen, 2018 Oil on canvas 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.3 cm)

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For R.N.M., 2018 Oil on canvas 18 x 18 inches (45.7 x 45.7 cm)

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Play it as it Lays, 2018 Charcoal on paper 35.75 x 32.75 inches (90.8 x 83.2 cm)

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Soft Shoe, 2018 Oil on canvas 79.25 x 36 inches (201.3 x 91.4 cm)

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A Single Stone, 2018 Oil on canvas 14 x 11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm)

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Eric, 2018 Oil on canvas 12 x 12 inches (30.5 x 30.5 cm)

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M. Heller, 2018 Oil on canvas 12 x 16 inches (122.2 x 73 cm)

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Heir Apparent, 2018 Charcoal and pastel on paper 64 x 48 inches (162.6 x 121.9 cm)

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Untitled, 2018 Oil on canvas 16 x 14 inches (40.6 x 35.6 cm)

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JENNIFER PACKER

Born 1984, Philadelphia, PA

Education

2012 MFA Yale University, Painting and Printmaking, New Haven, CT 2007 BFA Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Painting and Drawing, Elkins Park, PA 2005 Temple University, Rome, Italy

Solo Exhibitions

2018 Quality of Life, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, November 29, 2018 – January 19, 2019 2017 Tenderheaded, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL, September 9 – November 2, 2017;

traveled to: Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, March 2 –

July 8, 2018 2015 Breathing Room, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, NY, December 10, 2015 – January 23, 2016

Treading Water, Corvi-Mora, London, UK, April 9 – October 24, 2015

Group Exhibitions

2019 Selections from The Studio Museum in Harlem, Museum of the African Diaspora, San

Francisco, CA, January 15 – April 14, 2019; travels to: Gibbes Museum of Art,

Charleston, SC, May 24 – August 18, 2019; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts,

Kalamazoo, MI, September 13 – December 8, 2019; Smith College Museum of Art,

Northampton, MA, January 17 – April 12, 2020; Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA,

May 8 – August 2, 2020; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT, August 28 –

December 13, 2020 2018 The Beyond: Georgia O’Keeffe and Contemporary Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of

American Art, Bentonville, AR, May 26 – September 3, 2018

afinidades afetivas [affective affinities], 33a Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil,

September 7 – December 9, 2018 2017 Regarding the Figure, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, April 20 – August 6, 2017

We The Watchers Are Also Bodies, Hercules Art Studio Program, New York, NY, April 12 –

May 11, 2017 2016 Intimisms, James Cohan, New York, NY, June 23 – July 29, 2017 2015 8 Painters, Danese/Corey, New York, NY, February 13 – March 14, 2015

You Don’t Bring Me Flowers, 68 Projects: Galerie Kornfeld, Berlin, Germany, January 24 –

April 11, 2015 2014 RosterCrow, 68 Projects: Galerie Kornfeld, Berlin, Germany

In Between Days, Driscoll Babcock, New York, NY, June 19 – August 8, 2014 Home, Morris-Jumel Mansion, New York, NY, 2014

Sensitive Instruments, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL, February 7 – March 15, 2014

Rites of Spring, Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX, January 11 – March 9, 2014 2013 Corpus Americus, Driscoll Babcock, New York, NY, December 3, 2013 – January 18, 2014 69

2013 This Is The Prism The Spider Dreams Of As It Weaves Its Web, Signal Gallery, Brooklyn,

NY, November 15 – December 15, 2013

Things in Themselves, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, July 18 – October 26, 2013

In Front of Strangers, I Sing, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA, May 25 –

September 1, 2013

Paint as Figure, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, NY, February 28 – April 6, 2013 2012 FORE, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, November 11, 2012 – March 10, 2013

The Bearden Project, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, August 16 – October 21, 2012

Retrospective of S, Fredericks and Freiser, New York, NY, June 21 – July 27, 2012

MFA Thesis Exhibition, Green Gallery, New Haven, CT

The Study, New Haven, CT 2009 The Philadelphia Story, Raritan Valley Community College, Branchburg, NJ, September 8 –

October 1, 2009

The Philadelphia Story, Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA 2007 April 27, Art Making Machine Studios, Philadelphia, PA 2006 Will You Please Stop Talking, Please, Elkins Park, PA

AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND RESIDENCIES 2014 2013 2012 2011 2011 2007

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Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant Artist-In-Residence, The Studio Museum in Harlem Robert Schoelkopf Memorial Traveling Fellowships, Yale University Gamblin Paint Prize, Yale University Senior Painting Prize, Tyler School of Art

SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO.

530 WEST 22ND STREET NEW YORK, NY 10011 TEL 212 929 2262 WWW.SIKKEMAJENKINSCO.COM