Though the works in the exhibition could be studied anthropologically as artifacts of Betsy Packard’s life—a painting that records her casting of the I-ching; tip envelopes and hair samples from her time as a hair dresser; napkins collected as a waitress, processed and cast into the shape of a loaf of bread; her child’s baby teeth replacing the clock face of a wrist watch—the motivations of her artistic practice are not solely autobiographical.

The specific personal stories embedded in her materials may be more or less apparent to the viewer, more or less forgotten by the maker, but nevertheless inform Packard’s visual language—an aesthetic that values the humble, the mundane, and the intimate. Old clothing bearing the owner’s memory has been transformed to reveal the flat shapes of its construction. Egg cartons and plastic product packaging have been used as molds for casting cement and plaster. In lieu of more traditional materials such as paint or stone, Packard uses these quotidian keepsakes and detritus equally to play with form, shape, color, and texture.

The works in this exhibition, the earliest from 1978 (.1315 Bread), the most recent made this year (.1356 untitled), stem from a lifetime of carefully noting the possibilities of our everyday material surroundings. Consistent across the work is a conscious and emphatic thriftiness and a grittiness of both content and surface that rejects the common obsession with sleek, shiny, and new in our consumer culture; instead, Packard rejoices in materials that show permeability and wear, and attest to the ephemerality of our lives.

Biography

Betsy Packard has been an active artist in the Washington, DC-region for over 40 years. Her work has been exhibited across the United States, most recently in Pattern and Process at the Krannert Art Museum at University of Illinois, Metamorphosis: Highlights from the Permanent Collection at The Newcomb Art Museum in New Orleans, and Outliers: Kurt Godwin and Betsy Packard at the Katzen Arts Center. In 1977, Packard installed a site-specific artwork for the inaugural exhibition Louisiana Environments at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans.

Her work has also been shown regionally and nationally at Galerie Simonne Stern, Curator’s Office, The Shiva Gallery, John Jay College, the City University of New York, West Hubbard Gallery, The Addison Gallery of American Art, the Washington Project for the Arts, McLean Project for the Arts, the District of Columbia Arts Center, Maryland Art Place, Anton Gallery, and Gallery 10, among others.

Packard received Visual Artist’s Grants from the Maryland State Arts Council in 1988 and 1991 and served on the Washington Project for the Arts Board of Directors from 1985–1987. Her work is included in numerous private and public collections, including The Krannert Art Museum, The Newcomb Art Museum, and The American University Museum. She received a BFA from University of Illinois and an MFA from Tulane University.