In recent years, Martha Jackson-Jarvis's sculptures have been lush concoctions made of clay, glass, cement and wood. Using multiple layers of mosaic-like surfaces, fanciful imagery and bright, exhilarating colors, she depicted her dreams, thoughts, emotions and memories. That rich interior life still underlies all of her art, but the focus has shifted dramatically outward of late, resulting in a powerful new group of works that are spare, organic and more abstract and use what are for her uncharacteristic materials such as steel, seashells and live herbs. Both old and new works are on display at Addison/Ripley Fine Arts.
"They are departures from the earlier works," Jackson-Jarvis says of her latest creations. "I'd been doing some site-specific installations and I wanted to transfer some of what I was doing from interior space to a garden, outdoor environment. And these works were a paring down. In a landscape, the strongest element can often be the simplest one."
Some of the works were inspired by her research into the lives of slaves in the antebellum South. But it is not just the horror of slavery that is depicted in her sculptures like "Wall Structure II," but the irrepressible life force of the African American community, a vitality that transcended thralldom. In "Wall Structure II," Jackson-Jarvis outlines the roof and walls of a slave shack in steel on the wall and fills that form with seashells, white mosaic tile, pictures of birds and an enlarged photo of a row of slave quarters with gardens planted around them. Just beneath that structure is a planter in which thyme is growing that also bears another photo of the gardens. It is a tremendously lively, evocative and beguiling piece of sculpture.
Jackson-Jarvis gets almost minimalist in the body of work titled "Rue, Rocks and Robin Eggs." In "Robin Eggs: Nest I," for example, she limns a nest in steel rod and fills it with terra cotta eggs the size of cantaloupes.
"For me, robins have always been the first symbol of spring and I love the blue color of their eggs," she says. "I wanted to pull the nest out of the landscape and magnify it, change its scale. Instead of being minute, it's big, but it still has that primal reaction to the nest and eggs, that sense of nature's beauty and what it symbolizes."
It's that intriguing combination of natural and abstract forms and conceptual elements that makes Jackson-Jarvis's bold attempt to make more from less a success. Sharon Sanderson at Hemphill Fine Arts
In an impressive debut, Sharon Sanderson, who graduated from the Corcoran School of Art in June, has covered the walls of Hemphill Fine Arts' back room with her engaging installation "Foundations: To the Pacific Northwest."
The piece consists of dozens of plywood panels shaped like tables, on which Sanderson has silk-screened and collaged various images that form a loose, totemic, semi-autobiographical narrative. Certain images recur: the table shape, the face of a boy, the silhouette of a girl, churches, the heavens, roses, Jesus. The various panels don't have to be displayed in any particular order.
The imagery on the individual panels is familiar, appealing and beautiful. But when the viewer tries to make sequential connections among the panels, the familiarity turns to mystification. Are the boy and girl a couple? Are they growing together or drifting apart? Is the church a place of refuge and salvation or something more problematic? Is this life as a kind of giant board game played on the walls of some secular chapel? Sanderson's work offers no clear-cut answers. But it provides vast space for the viewer to scan the scenes and weave their own tale or just gaze in wonder. Numark's Home Run
When some of America's best-known contemporary artists turn their creativity to making things like furniture, lamps and rugs, strange and impractical things happen. Sol Lewitt's minimalist patterns, for example, actually look great as a pair of end tables made from welded steel. Jennifer Bartlett's blown-glass vases have a kind of classical quirkiness that appears to be totally unrelated to her paintings or installations. And Chuck Close's portrait is absolutely stunning as a black-and-white silk tapestry.
Those works can be seen in Numark Gallery's weird, wild and whimsical exhibit titled "Art Wares." Whether it was the liberation that making such objects offered these big-name artists--instead of being their trademarked selves they could just let it all hang out--or the chance to branch out into the potentially lucrative business of home furnishings, they appear to have had fun.
We're not talking perky, practical Scandinavian design here. Richard Tuttle's "Lamp With No Style" is exactly that: a bunch of pine boards with a light fixture attached. At the opposite end of the aesthetic spectrum is Gary Stephan's beautifully designed and built "Ribbon Chaise," with its graceful, flowing curves executed in mahogany, poplar, brass and caning. It looks about as comfortable as a waffle iron, but is still a gorgeous piece of furniture cum art.
Martha Jackson-Jarvis at Addison/Ripley Fine Art, 9 Hillyer Ct. NW, Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., 202-328-2332, through Jan. 2.
Sharon Sanderson at Hemphill Fine Arts, 1027 33rd St. NW, Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., 202-342-5610, through Dec. 31.
Art Wares at Numark Gallery, 406 Seventh St. NW., Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., 202-628-3810, through Jan. 9. CAPTION: Sharon Sanderson's installation at Hemphill Fine Arts, above, evokes questions that may not have answers. Martha Jackson- Jarvis's "Garden Wall I," left, at Addison/Ripley Fine Arts, is part of her new focus. ec