Andrea Packard: Assembling Nature

Exhibition Dates: October 5 - 30, 2010

Reception: Thursday, October 7, 6 - 8 pm

The Painting Center is pleased to announce that its main gallery will feature Assembling Nature, a solo exhibition recent works by Andrea Packard. Packard’s mixed media works on paper and panel recombine fragments of prints, papers, and fabric with layers of pastel, gouache, and acrylic. Many of her artworks take inspiration from the New England and Mid-Atlantic woods and wetlands—sites that have been threatened or destroyed by development. She does not represent these environments literally but looks for ways to evoke and explore nature’s power to surprise and inspire. Working from both observation and an experimental collage process, she seeks a response to nature that reveals something of the way forms, relationships, and observations change over time. Her images are not so much about static places as states that are dynamic, ephemeral, or subject to change. As Packard writes "In a world dominated by mass-produced imagery, I am fascinated by art that resists memorization and rewards a searching gaze. I take a painterly approach to collage processes and am interested in the way external and internal worlds continually recombine."

Packard has shown her paintings, prints, and sculptures in over fifty exhibitions in Connecticut, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Most recently, her work has been featured in a solo exhibition at The Philadelphia International Airport and Canopy, a group exhibition at Lohin Geduld Gallery, NY. This summer, Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville, Arkansas purchased a series of her works and placed them on long-term display in their Joy Pratt Markham Gallery. In March 2011, her work will be featured in Composing Nature, a solo exhibition at the List Gallery, Swarthmore College. Her work is included in varied permanent collections including the Mann Center for the Arts, Philadelphia; Arco Inc.; Rohm and Haas, Inc.; The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; The Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Philadelphia; Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville, AR; and numerous private collections.

Packard received an M.F.A. from American University (1994), a Certificate from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1989), and a B.A. from Swarthmore College (1985). She has won numerous awards for her work, including Swarthmore College's Oak Leaf award, Flack Achievement award, and Lockwood Fellowship; the American University's Glassman and Sacknoff Awards; the Pennsylvania Academy's Cresson Traveling Scholarship; and residency fellowships from the Joseph and Anni Albers Foundation, St. Mary’s College, Chester Springs Studio, and the Vermont Studio Center. Since 1995, Packard has directed the List Gallery, Swarthmore College. She has written numerous essays on diverse artists including William Daley, Michael Olszewski, Alisson Saar, Lezley Saar, Rackstraw Downes, Stanley Lewis, Emily Brown, Hiroyuki Hamada, and Alice Lok Cahana. She has also served as a art juror, panelist, curator, lecturer, and instructor at varied institutions including the National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, NY; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Dartmouth College, and Oglethorpe University Museum, Atlanta. Since 2009, she has been Consulting Curator for Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville, AR