New York's Arader Gallery Promotes JMU Alum

Congratulations to Alexis Jason-Mathews, a member of the Class of 2011 and an Art History Major, for her recent promotion at the Arader Galleries, a firm with five galleries across the country specializing in antique works on paper and rare books. Alexis is now Auction Coordinator and Office Manager for the Galleries’ New York City branch. In this role she produces the Gallery’s auction catalogs; maintains the object checklist for each auction; registers online bidders; and clerks for the online auctioneer on the day of sale. As Office Manager, Alexis oversees the smooth running of the Gallery.

Alexis's favorite part of her job is working on the auction catalog, which requires laying out the book format in "InDesign"; coordinating with the printers to have the art works photographed; and coordinating delivery to the Gallery and mailing of the catalog to clients. After graduation from JMU in 2011 Alexis earned her Master’s degree in Art History, Criticism and Conservation at Rutgers University (2013), writing a masters thesis entitled "The City and The Body: Reading Illustrations of the Victims and Environment of Jack the Ripper." Her paper focused on how the “Illustrated Police News”, an 1888 tabloid, used their illustrations of the female victims of Jack the Ripper and the environment of the East End of London to play out anxieties about lower-class women and the London slums where they lived.

At JMU, Alexis was a Madison Advising Peer, as well as an Art History Forum speaker in 2011, presenting her paper on Sir Joshua Reynold's painting of Lady Delme, mentored by Dr. David Ehrenpreis. She wrote a Senior Honors Thesis on the work of Remedios Varo, a Surrealist artist who lived and worked in Spain for the majority of her artistic career. While at JMU, Alexis studied abroad in Paris, France, and St. Andrews, Scotland. She also interned at the Sawhill Gallery. Alexis’ professional experiences after JMU include internships at Rutger’s Zimmerli Art Museum (Fall 2012); the New York Historical Society (Spring-Summer 2012); and West Palm Beach’s Norton Museum of Art (Summer 2011.)