Jennifer Packer was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She earned her BFA from the Tyler School of Art (Temple University) and an MFA from the Yale School of Art.
In her own words, her style — oil painting, scenes, portraits, interiors, everyday life — is always a form of political and existential expression.
She often explores themes of racial identity, loss, and memory.
Her visual language balances figurative abstraction — it looks strikingly contemporary, expressive yet minimal at the same time. You just want to keep looking.
Her floral still lifes and portraits are often seen as memorials — for instance, the painting “Say Her Name” (2017) refers to the memory of Sandra Bland.
She shows how an artist with local roots can reach an international level while remaining a connecting thread between her city and the global art scene.
She has exhibited in the U.S. and abroad: her major retrospective “Jennifer Packer: The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing” was first shown at the Serpentine Galleries in London and later at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
Through her painting, she explores belonging, visibility, and what it means to be “seen” — as an artist, as a person, as a representative.
She makes painting a language that speaks beyond mere depiction — filled with personal attitude, emotional depth, style, and imagination.
As she herself says: “Painting can go where photography cannot.”