Born in Lynchburg, Virginia 1952
Temple University, BFA, 1972
Antioch University, MFA, 1984
Lives and works in Washington, D.C.
MARTHA JACKSON JARVIS (b. 1952) explores form, structure, and scale through a multi-media practice consisting of mosaic and paint to earthen, sculptural materials such as stone, copper, and sand. Jarvis’ multifarious practice challenges the viewer to find the extraordinary in our cultural and physical environments. Her works conjure themes of ritual and repetitive action and are made in reverence to the cycles of renewal, degradation, and transformation. Growing up in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Philadelphia, she now lives and works in Washington, D.C. Receiving a BFA from Temple University, and an MFA from Antioch University, Jarvis’ work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States and abroad, including a survey show at the Baltimore Museum of Art (2023), and inclusion in exhibitions at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (1996); the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art/Philadelphia African American Museum (2023); Spelman College Museum of Art, Atlanta (2011); Smithsonian Institute, Anacostia Museum, Washington, D.C. (1987); the Studio Museum of Harlem, NY (1993); Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, N.C. (1990); and the Tretyakov Gallery Moscow, U.S.S.R. (1991). Work by Jarvis is currently on view in She Speaks at the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum, Annapolis, MD. 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, Washington, D.C.; the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; the Philadelphia African American Museum; and the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., among others. Public commissions can be found at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Washington, D.C.; the Fannie Mae Corporation, Washington, DC; New York and Washington Metro Transit Authority; the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh; UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Pittsburgh; and the Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, among others.