Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow

Alexis Rockman
Pond's Edge
1986 oil and acrylic on canvas

Pond's Edge is one of Rockman’s first paintings inspired by a natural history subject—the Periophthalmus, or mudskipper. We are plunged directly into the scene and confronted with the monumental face of a mudskipper resting at the surface of a still pond. His bulging eyes scan for food: skyward toward a dragonfly and downward to a mosquito larva. A precise blue line delineates sky from water, allowing us to see the animal from both above and below the water’s edge. This compositional device is a signature of Rockman’s work, providing a means to simultaneously represent terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Rubell Family Collection, Miami

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
The Balance of Terror
1988 oil on canvas

The Balance of Terror is based on an agricultural display from New York’s American Museum of Natural History and provides an interior view of a large green apple with a mealworm at its core. The engorged beetle larva burrows through the fruit, leaving behind a trail of feces. Meanwhile, a menacing Venus Flytrap stands to the left, waiting to capture a nearby fly. Rockman’s palette contributes to the painting’s eerie mood. Richly hued areas of opacity dissolve into transparent veils of glaze, creating a palpable tension between life and death.

James and Abigail Rich

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
Aviary
1992 Oil on wood

Private Collection

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
Evolution
1992 oil on wood

Evolution is the artist’s first monumental landscape painting. The compositional format once again references the planar structure of dioramas, while the imagery reflects Rockman’s interests in evolutionary biology, taxonomy, time lines, and widescreen cinema. The painting also alludes to iconic works from the Hudson River school, in particular the dramatic landscapes of Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Cole, and Thomas Moran. While these painters have had a profound and lasting influence on Rockman’s development, Evolution is more than an amalgam of nineteenth-century references. The painting is a riveting summation of the artist’s early work, an inventory of images and ideas nurtured since childhood and laid out over four vivid panels. Together the panels present an eerie juxtaposition of real and imagined animals from prehistory to the present.

Collection of George R. Stroemple

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
Biosphere: Orchids
1993 oil on wood

Chuck and Joyce Shenk

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
Biosphere: Hydrographer's Canyon
1994 oil on wood

Andrea Feldman Falcione and Greg Falcione

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
Bromeliad: Kaieteur Falls
1994 oil on wood

In 1994, Rockman journeyed into the dense South American jungle of Guyana and spent two months documenting the vast array of insect life that inhabits the equatorial rivers, streams, and forests. As in his early work, Rockman alternates viewpoints dramatically, at times pulling back to provide a sweeping overview of the jungle interior and at other moments thrusting the viewer headlong into the ruthless food chain of a poisonous insect. What distinguishes the Guyana pictures from Rockman’s previous work is their complete authenticity, the result of a self-imposed restriction to invent nothing and instead paint only the flora and fauna found in the rain forest. Despite their resolute fidelity to nature, Rockman’s Guyana works are no less haunting than his imagined scenarios. They delight in the weirdness of what is real, bringing us face-to-face with the incomparable biodiversity of the jungle interior.

Nestlé USA

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
Kapok Tree
1995 oil on wood

In Kapok Tree, Rockman transports us to the interior jungle of the Guyanese rain forest. We stand beneath the great kapok tree at twilight, gazing up at the dense canopy and the starry sky beyond. The velvet darkness is momentarily broken by a pool of artificial light revealing a nocturnal world in motion on the ample trunk. The words of entomologist Edward O. Wilson seem to reverberate through the enveloping foliage: “The forest at night is an experience in sensory deprivation . . . black and silent as the midnight zone of a cave. Life is out there in expected abundance. The jungle teems, but in a manner mostly beyond the reach of the human senses.”

Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Gift of Peter Norton

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
Host and Vector
1996 oil on wood

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Gift of the Nye Family

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
Airport
1997 Envirotex, digitized photograph, vacuum-formed. Styrofoam with aluminum finish, Plasticene, oil paint, and Laughing Gull specimen on wood.

Collection of Rachel and Jean-Pierre Lehmann

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
The Hammock
2000 oil on wood

In 1998, Rockman returned to the rain forest of Guyana with the intention of documenting his trip with same meticulous attention to detail that he applied four years earlier. But the artist’s original earnestness about field observation was quickly replaced by a fascination with pop-culture representations of ecotourism and the exotic allure of adventure travel. In the resulting series, titled “Expedition,” the verdant jungle becomes the backdrop for a human drama starring Rockman and his friends as they camp, fish, and commune on the Essequibo River. Each painting presents a fictional narrative about the potential hazards of traveling in an unfamiliar environment and the foolish naïveté of the typical eco-traveler.

In The Hammock an unsuspecting tourist sleeps under the stars, oblivious to the perils that surround him. The warm glow of a lantern underscores the traveler’s romanticized notion of “getting back to nature.” A shotgun leans just within arm’s reach, but will do little to defend against the swarm of angry mosquitoes about to wreak havoc on the traveler’s exposed flesh.

Collection of Ninah and Michael Lynne

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
Cataclysm
2003 oil and acrylic on wood

In Cataclysm, Rockman shows the effect that a natural disaster has on even the smallest creatures. Rockman plays with notions of scale as a swarm of insects appears on par with the apocalyptic destruction that it flees. Coming toward us, the insects consume our vision and block our view of the erupting volcano behind. Yet even our view of the things closest to us is obscured. The intense realism of bodies and limbs cropped by the frame questions our ability to see and understand unpredictable natural forces.

Collection of Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
Manifest Destiny
2003-2004 oil and acrylic on wood

While Rockman has always dealt with the fracture between nature and culture, Manifest Destiny was the first work to confront the climate crisis and its human toll. As such, it is a fulcrum in the artist’s career, a pivotal summation of past work and a sign of things to come. The painting depicts the Brooklyn waterfront several hundred years in the future after global warming has ravaged the landscape. The composition is framed by two degrading bridges. On the far left panel a futuristic suspension bridge lies beneath the elevated waters of the East River. The historic Brooklyn Bridge stands in ruinous decay on the far right panel of the painting, a victim of its own aging infrastructure. Despite the ominous tenor of this post-apocalyptic scene, Manifest Destiny does not herald the end of all life. On the contrary, the picture is teeming with organic growth. The presence of local flora and fauna confirm the adaptive power of nature and the promise that life will persist even if humanity does not.

Courtesy of the Artist and Waqas Wajahat, New York

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
Hollywoood at Night
2006 oil on wood

In Hollywood at Night the famous California hillside has devolved into a primitive landscape. The towering letters of the landmark Hollywood sign are illegible against the night sky. The city of Los Angeles is still visible in the distance, but its power has long been extinguished. The only remaining light emanates from the crescent moon and the twinkling bioluminescence of fireflies that have migrated westward to the City of Angels.

Mr. and Mrs. Henry P. Davis

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
The Pelican
2006 oil on wood

Courtesy Elizabeth Schwartz, New York

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
Sea World
2001 - 2004 oil and acrylic on wood panel

Sea World portrays a futuristic aquatic theme park where extinct and imagined marine animals perform for a throng of onlookers. In the background, a seal with heads at each end of its body basks on the terraced fountain while a bikini-clad woman rides a Jurassic-age reptile. And in the foreground, a polar bear shaped like a sea urchin bounces out from a water slide while two giant tentacles creep along the tank’s glass enclosure. Despite the spectacle, the audience appears unfazed by the genetic mutations on display.

Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, Gift of Pamela K and William A. Royall, Jr.

© Virginia Museum of Fine Arts - Photo Travis Fullerton

Alexis Rockman
Supergrid
2007 oil on gessoed paper

Michael Polsky

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
The Reef
2009 oil and resin on wood panel

In The Reef, Rockman depicts a radiant beam of sunlight penetrating the shallow sea to a coral reef below. The painting is a subtle commentary on the abundance of marine life supported by a single reef and the vulnerability of these complex 
ecosystems. Ozone depletion, ocean warming, and pollution are just a few of the threats facing coral reef colonies and the hundreds of species that reside within them.

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist

Alexis Rockman
South
2008 oil on gessoed paper

In November 2007, Rockman traveled to the Antarctic Peninsula on a small expedition ship called The Endeavor. Accompanied by a team of guides and his partner, Dorothy Spears, he spent twelve days exploring and documenting the “White Continent.” The resulting painting, South, is an epic panorama of the artist’s voyage and the luminous polar landscape.

The Pappas Family, Boston

© Alexis Rockman Photo courtesy of the artist