Martha Jackson Jarvis (born 1952) is an American artist known for her mixed-media installations that explore aspects of African, African American, and Native American spirituality, ecological concerns, and the role of women in preserving indigenous cultures. Her installations are composed using a variety of natural materials including terracotta, sand, copper, recycled stone, glass, wood and coal. Her works often focus on the history and culture of African Americans in the southern United States. In her exhibition at the Corcoran, Jarvis featured over 100 big collard green leaves, numerous carp and an live Potomac catfish. Jackson Jarvis is best known for her outdoor public installations, including a mosaic, "River Spirits of the Anacostia", located at the Anacostia Metro station in Washington, DC, and sculptures, "Music of the Spheres, at Fannie Mae Plaza in Washington, DC, and "Crossroads/Trickster I," at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. She also worked as a designer on the set of Julie Dash's 1991 film, Daughters of the Dust. Julie McGee, an art historian at the University of Delaware stated, “The work of Jackson Jarvis operates in two worlds—that of large-scale public commissions and the more intimate space of the gallery. Very few artists are able to finesse both, and certainly not with her acumen and sensitivity.” Biography During her early childhood in the 1950s and 1960s, Jackson Jarvis lived in Virginia, an experience she describes as "very segregated." She credits her interest in art to a childhood experience of accompanying her grandmother to a local spring to gather white clay and later making dolls and other objects with the material. The family moved to Philadelphia when she was thirteen. Her freshman year at Howard University in 1970 was very influential due to the active presence of artists including Lois Mailou Jones, Ed Love, Jeff Donaldson, and Elizabeth Catlett. She transferred to Temple University's Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, to study ceramics. Jackson married Bernard Jarvis, the cousin of Bebe Moore Campbell. She continued her studio work while her children Njena and Bernard Jr. were young. Exhibitions 1977 - African American Historical Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1980 - Washington Project for the Arts (WPA), Washington, DC 1981 - Howard University, Gallery of Art, Washington, DC 1996 - Structuring Energy at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC Addison-Ripley Fine Arts, Washington, DC Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 2018 - Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Outside/IN, Washington, DC Selected awards and