2026 State of the Art Prize, Washington, DC

About Njena Surae Jarvis

Washington, DC

Njena Surae Jarvis is a multidisciplinary artist whose work investigates the transformative power of material, memory, and ritual. Her practice spans alchemical sculpture, wet-forming leather, ecological art, marlinspike knotwork, electroforming, and experimental chemistry. She is a graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and The Cooper Union. Raised in Washington, DC, Jarvis integrates spiritual, ecological, and technical knowledge into her studio process, treating it as a hermetic lab where she studies traditional crafts and obscure material processes. She is known for her experimentation with site-specific waters, salts, natural dyes, and historical textiles, creating living monuments that evolve across forms and landscapes. Jarvis has completed four public art commissions in Washington, DC, and exhibited nationally. Her sculptural work E.GUN.GUN—an embodied tribute to the Black Panthers—was featured in “It Takes a Nation” at American University’s Katzen Center. At Woodlawn Plantation, she transformed the master bedroom into the ritual space of the Orisha Oya, using electroformed copper and indigo-dyed leather armor. A former touring musician and performance artist, her practice merges the sacred, the scientific, and the social, invoking healing and reclamation. Her work transforms research, materials, and spirit into new visual languages that resist, remember, and regenerate.

Njena Surae Jarvis is a multidisciplinary artist whose work investigates the transformative power of material, memory, and ritual. Her practice spans alchemical sculpture, wet-forming leather, ecological art, marlinspike knotwork, electroforming, and experimental chemistry. She is a graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and The Cooper Union. Raised in Washington, DC, Jarvis integrates spiritual, ecological, and technical knowledge into her studio process, treating it as a hermetic lab where she studies traditional crafts and obscure material processes. She is known for her experimentation with site-specific waters, salts, natural dyes, and historical textiles, creating living monuments that evolve across forms and landscapes. Jarvis has completed four public art commissions in Washington, DC, and exhibited nationally. Her sculptural work E.GUN.GUN—an embodied tribute to the Black Panthers—was featured in “It Takes a Nation” at American University’s Katzen Center. At Woodlawn Plantation, she transformed the master bedroom into the ritual space of the Orisha Oya, using electroformed copper and indigo-dyed leather armor. A former touring musician and performance artist, her practice merges the sacred, the scientific, and the social, invoking healing and reclamation. Her work transforms research, materials, and spirit into new visual languages that resist, remember, and regenerate.