Martha Jackson Jarvis explores form, structure, and scale through a multi-media practice, challenging the viewer to find the extraordinary in our cultural and physical environments. Her works conjure themes of ritual and repetitive action and are inspired by the cycles of Nature, renewal and transformation. Whether public installation, large-scale works on paper and canvas, or sculpture, the artist’s work functions as an abstracted, emotional response to her environment, her history, and our place in the world.
Her expressive mixed-media paintings flood the galleries with vibrant sweeps of color, which are accompanied by deep solid earth tones and generous swaths of black-walnut ink—the compositions practically dance across the galleries’ walls…Jackson Jarvis clearly embodied her ancestor’s sense of spirit and faith, which resonates palpably throughout the entirety of this presentation. - Artforum
Jarvis’ work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States and abroad, including a recent solo show at the Baltimore Museum of Art, and prior exhibitions at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; the Studio Museum of Harlem; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; the North Carolina Museum of Art, Winston-Salem, N.C.; Anacostia Museum in Washington, D.C. and the Tretyakov Gallery Moscow, U.S.S.R. Jarvis has received numerous awards, including a Creative Capital Grant, a Virginia Groot Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the Lila Wallace Arts International Travel Grant. She received the James A Porter Colloquium Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023. Her work can be found in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Philadelphia African American Museum, among others.
Martha Jackson Jarvis has executed public and corporate art commissions for the Philip Morris Corporation in Washington, D.C.; Merck Company in Pennsylvania; Fannie Mae in Washington, D.C. Washington Metro Transit Authority, Anacostia Station; New York Transit Authority, Mount Vernon; South Carolina Botanical Gardens in Clemson; Prince George’s County Courthouse in Upper Marlboro, Md.; and the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C.
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