April, restless . 2017
Packer’s figurative paintings are marked by a powerful quietude. Each canvas reads as a self-contained world, its subject emerging from or dissolving into its surroundings. She presents those who sit for her—usually family members and friends— with compassion, foregrounding their individual autonomy and carefully guarding their integrity. Art historian Jessica Bell Brown describes Packer’s scenes as “emphatically mundane and radically tender,” embodying questions of representation, visibility, and desire.
THE RENAISSANCE SOCIETY
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