Jennifer Packer: Dead Letter

Tony Bluestone | The Brooklyn Rail | 18th November 2025

Packer is a rising star in American art, enjoying solo shows and major awards early in her career. Her latest exhibition showcases her portraiture. It’s “a memento mori” says one writer,  “what traces [people] leave after they are gone”.  That seems apt, Packer having recently suffered a personal loss. In one work “two perfectly rendered feet touch the ground. Meanwhile, the figure drifts upward and away. Packer’s layering —of paint, gesture, and meaning— mirrors the complexity of mourning.”