JUDITH ZABAR VISITING ARTIST
Lecture in-person and online
Wednesday, April 13, 2022 7pm
ROOSEVELT HOUSE PUBLIC POLICY INSTITUTE
AT HUNTER COLLEGE
47-49 EAST 65TH STREET
NEW YORK, NY 10065
Jennifer Packer is an American artist, living and working in New York City. She is a recipient of the 2020 Rome Prize of the American Academy, and the 2020 Hermitage Greenfield Prize. Packer creates portraits, interior scenes, and still lifes that suggest a casual intimacy. She 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 the 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, was exhibited at the Renaissance Society, Chicago in fall 2017 before travelling to the Rose Museum at Brandeis University in March 2018. Packer currently teaches as an Assistant Professor in the Painting Department at RISD. Her exhibition, The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing is the largest survey of Packer’s practice to date. It originated at the Serpentine Gallery in London, and can be seen at The Whitney Museum of American Art until April 17th 2022.
ABOUT THE JUDITH ZABAR VISITING ARTISTS PROGRAM
In November 2007, Hunter College received a generous commitment to establish the Judith Zabar Visiting Artist Program Fund. The Fund has allowed Hunter to bring a series of internationally recognized artists to campus to work directly with students in the MFA program, in master classes, critical seminars, and private tutorials, providing students with the unique opportunity to interact with top practitioners in the field. Zabar Visiting Artists also present public lectures where they discuss their work, engage in conversation with members of Hunter’s faculty, and with Hunter’s broader student community and the general public.
Past Zabar artists have included: Vito Acconci, Janine Antoni, Polly Apfelbaum, Julie Ault, Robert Barry, Dawoud Bey, Tania Bruguera, Patty Chang, Mel Chin, Peter Doig, Charles Gaines, Alfredo Jaar, Emily Jacir, Joan Jonas, Jeff Koons, David Lamelas, Glenn Ligon, Sharon Lockhart, Marie Losier, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Christian Marclay, Kerry James Marshall, Tracey Moffatt, Wangechi Mutu, My Barbarian, Gabriel Orozco, Laura Owens, Sondra Perry, Elizabeth Peyton, Paul Pfeiffer, William Pope L., Walid Ra’ad, Yvonne Rainer, Doris Salcedo, Shahzia Sikander, Cauleen Smith, Frances Stark, Fred Tomaselli, Nari Ward, Carrie Mae Weems, and Stanley Whitney.
