The Wexner Arts Center Presents Alexis Rockman's Paintings

Written by Francis Ferdinand Saturday, 31 March 2012 21:47

Columbus, OH.— Previously on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, "Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow" will travel to the Wexner Center for the Arts, where it can be through December 30th. The exhibition is the first major survey of the artist's work, with nearly 40 paintings that trace his career from early works in the mid-1980s to 2009, including several of his monumentally scaled paintings. The exhibition includes three large-scale paintings that are ambitious turning points in Rockman's artistic development. "Evolution" (1992), his first mural-sized painting, is a panoramic sweep that owes as much to a pop cinema stylistic sensibility as it does to actual prehistory; it reflects Rockman's interests in evolutionary biology, cryptozoology, and genetic mutation.

Alexis Rockman (b. 1962) has been depicting the natural world with virtuosity and wit for more than two decades. He was one of the first contemporary artists to build his career around exploring environmental issues, from evolutionary biology and genetic engineering to deforestation and climate change. His work expresses deep concerns about the world's fragile ecosystems and the tension between nature and culture. These concerns are communicated through vivid, even apocalyptic, imagery. Rockman has garnered attention for embracing these issues, as well as for the epic quality of his projects. The title of the exhibition, A Fable for Tomorrow, is taken from the opening chapter of Rachel Carson's influential 1962 book Silent Spring. In it, Carson combines two seemingly incompatible literary genres—mythic narrative and factual reportage. Rockman approaches his paintings with a similar intent. He achieves his vision through a synthesis of fantasy and empirical fact, using sources as varied as natural history, botanical illustrations, museum dioramas, science fiction films, realist art traditions dating back to the Renaissance, and firsthand field study. "Rockman is no stranger to the Wexner Center," notes Sherri Geldin, the center's director. "Large-scale reproductions of two of the artist's wallscapes (Manifest Destiny and Evolution) were on view in the Wexner Center's lobby in the 2004–05 season, and he returned last year to participate in our annual Director's Dialogue on Art and Social Change: Climate and Culture. Alexis is a highly accomplished and respected figure whom we are delighted to welcome back to the center and to Ohio State, where environmental research permeates multiple academic disciplines."

"Manifest Destiny" (2003–2004), commissioned by the Brooklyn Museum of Art, depicts an apocalyptic vision of the Brooklyn waterfront submerged as the result of global warming. "South" (2008), an epic panorama drawn from the artist's observations while on a trip to Antarctica, documents every aspect of iceberg geology through simultaneous views above and below the water's surface. In 1994, Rockman journeyed into the dense South American jungle of Guyana; the painting "Bromeliad: Kaieteur Falls" (1994) represents this period, distinguished from Rockman's other work by his decision to paint only the flora and fauna found in the rain forest. Rockman returned to Guyana in 1998, when his previous interest in field observation was replaced by a fascination with pop-culture representations of ecotourism and the exotic allure of adventure travel. The resulting series, titled Expedition, includes paintings such as "The Hammock" (2000), which includes compositional elements that recall classic science fiction films. Rockman's new focus on abstraction and process is evident in the artist's most recent body of work, "Half-Life", inspired by the techniques of Color Field artist Morris Louis (1912–1962) and dominated by large veils of viscous pigment and loose, improvisational brushstrokes.

Rockman's work has been exhibited in the United States, Europe, Russia and Israel. He has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington (2001), Camden Arts Centre in London (2004), and The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University (2008), among others. Group exhibitions include Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away organized by Damien Hirst at the Serpentine Gallery in London (1994), Into Me/Out of Me organized by Klaus Biesenbach at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, N.Y. (2006), and Badlands at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Mass. (2008). He will be included in the 2011 Prospect.2 New Orleans, organized by Dan Cameron, director of visual arts for the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans. His paintings are in many public collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. As a child, Rockman spent endless hours exploring the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence and received a bachelor's degree in fine art from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Rockman has contributed to several publications and has taught courses at Columbia University and Harvard University. He lives and works in New York City. Rockman is represented by Waqas Wajahat in New York City and Baldwin Gallery in Aspen, Colorado.


The Wexner Center opened in November 1989. Conceived as a research laboratory for all the arts, it has emphasized commissions for new work and artist residencies since its inception. Its multidisciplinary programs encompass performing arts, exhibitions, and media arts (film/video) and have focused on cutting-edge culture from around the globe. In October 2005, the Wexner Center galleries reopened after an extensive renovation. All program areas remained active during the renovation, but exhibitions were mounted off site, at the Belmont Building in downtown Columbus. The Wexner Center building is named in honor of Harry L. Wexner, the father of Leslie H. Wexner, chairman and founder of Limited Brands and a major donor to the center. The Wexner Center's building was designed by architects Peter Eisenman of New York and the late Richard Trott of Columbus with landscape architect Laurie Olin of Philadelphia. The Wexner Center was the first major public building to be designed by Eisenman, previously known primarily as a teacher and theorist. He has gone on to design and build a number of other major projects including the Columbus Convention Center. Visit the center's website at ... http://www.wexarts.org

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