Here Martha Jackson Jarvis (Lynchberg, 1952 - ) bears witness to her great-great-great-great grandfather's experience as an enlisted free Black militia man during the American Revolutionary War. In May of 1781, Luke Valentine and his cohort, led by Captain Adam Clements, engaged in battle at points from Bedford County, Virginia to the shores of South Carolina. This was a treacherous and unpredictable passage across uncharted territories, particularly for a Black man in the American South. In November of 1832, Valentine made a declaration in order to receive his pension for his services in the Revolution, the documentation of which led to Jarvis' discovery of him and his story, more than 150 years later.

Inspired by this newfound family history, Jarvis speculatively retraces his steps, resulting in her signature, large-scale abstract paintings in which she tracks his physical and emotional journey through various landscapes, both wild and domestic, embedding the work with constructed memories of a bygone time and place.

Along with the practical introduction of the terrestrial via natural pigment, the compositions also take visual cues from nature, implementing forms reminiscent of wild vegetation and waterways, both in obvious reference to the terrains and environments Luke Valentine would have traversed on his march and to highlight the unseen threads that connects us to home and our ancestry, like roots on the family tree.

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 solo exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art (2023), and prior exhibitions at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (1996); the Studio Museum of Harlem, NY(1993), Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, N.C. (1990) , Anacostia Museum in Washington, D.C. (1987) and the Tretyakov Gallery Moscow, U.S.S.R.(1991). 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 permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Philadelphia African American Museum; and the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College, Easton PA. She is currently at work on public commissions for the UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Pittsburgh; and the Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria.