Jennifer Packer’s portraits of friends and family don’t fully materialize before us; a fading foot or face that hasn’t quite come into focus keep each sitter’s identity unfixed. Here, in a captivating portrait titled ‘The Body Has Memory,’ Packer suggests that past experiences manifest physically in the body. (On view in Chelsea at Sikkema Jenkins & Co through Jan 19th).
An Artforum critic recently identified a central quality of young New York painter Jennifer Packer’s style by explaining that her paintings capture a ‘state of perpetual becoming.’ In this painting dedicated to the artist’s late college painting instructor, flowers emerge explosively from a shadowy yet brilliant mass, existing as suggestions of color and form. (At Chelsea’s Sikkema Jenkins & Co through Jan 23rd).
Jennifer Packer, Breathing Room, Flowers for Frank Bramblett, oil on canvas, 48 x 29 inches, 2015.