In our complex era of sophisticated technology, immediate gratification and the virtual experience of nature on the Internet or television, it is not easy to establish what ‘nature’ is anymore. Today artists in England, Germany, Central Europe and the United States, are increasingly responding to a natural world plagued with environmental problems. Key issues in their work, since the close of the 20th century, include their responses to news about climatic disaster, the extinction of threatened species, the depletion of natural resources and unrestrained squander.

(Left) Alexis Rockman, Airport (1997). Envirotex, digitized photograph, vacuum-filled Styrofoam with aluminum finish, Plasticene, oil paint and Laughing Gull specimen on wood. Collection Rachel and Jean Pierre Lehmann. All images pictured in this article ©Alexis Rockman. Photos courtesy of the artist. fine arts magazine

For nearly twenty-five years Alexis Rockman has been an artistic leader in scrutinizing the natural world through his symbolic paintings that represent wary moments in human and natural history, from the Industrial Revolution to this digital age of climate change. His first one-man retrospective titled, Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. until May, testifies to his exacting, spectacular representation, illuminating this artist’s love of nature, science-fiction and popular culture. Dr. Elizabeth Broun, the Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, has expressed that “Alexis Rockman’s cross-disciplinary approach is well suited to the Smithsonian’s long tradition of embracing science and art as complementary ways of understanding our world.”

Joanna Marsh, The James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art at SAAM is organizer of this extensive survey and its fully- illustrated catalogue. [1] Throughout she demonstrates her acute grasp of Rockman’s work by the selection of his multifaceted work in this show and her writing. The opening chapter from Rachel Carson’s noteworthy book, Silent Spring, 1962, in which the author joins two unsuited literary genres—mythic narrative and factual reportage, inspired the title of the exhibition…

Rockman’s artistic evolution unfolds from his early works in the mid-1980s to the present in the progression of the exhibit’s 47 paintings and works on paper. Viewers are brought nose to nose with a future that is at once surreal and yet disconcertingly familiar. Painted exquisitely in lush colors are snails, insects, rodents, phantasmagorical creatures, mutant animals, flooded urban sites and alternative environments, either sterilized by science or perpetually altered due to pollution that are metaphorically objectified by their pictorial placement in bizarre, yet sensuous, environments. Marsh expressed that Rockman’s work “hovers between the extremes of creation and destruction.” At times all of this makes for some uncomfortable viewing, notwithstanding the appeal of this weird and wonderful imagery. According to Rockman, “In collaboration with members of the scientific community, I focus on the geological future after the effects of global warming. In so doing, I am taking the impossibly abstract notion of global climate change and applying it to familiar territory, to convey the profound effect that humans are having on the environment.”

To create his forward-looking landscapes, Alexis Rockman consults with biologists, zoologists, and paleontologists having done field work in locations as remote as the rainforests in Guyana. He is a former columnist and illustrator for Natural History magazine, and draws upon extensive scientific research, including consultations with NASA climatologists, to create his theatrically arresting work. He has also worked directly with architect Diane Lewis, who produced comprehensive architectural renderings of sections of Brooklyn. Collectively, these all inform his work, as do art historical references from Thomas Cole to Robert Smithson.

This survey affords viewers not only the strength of Rockman’s oeuvre and his absorption with extraordinary detail, but also his observations of the negative consequences of industrial and technological progress, fuelled by products of multinational conglomerates and their lack of compassion for the environment. Rockman explains, “My position is one of ambivalence, as the horse is already out of the barn so to speak; it is not biotechnology that is the problem, but corporate America, globalism, or colonialism. The implications of using technology are far more devastating because of the unknowable effects. This is something that is very disturbing and visually compelling to me.”

Simultaneously, the results of Rockman’s meticulous work invokes a type of critical poetry as well as provocation. Though he has traveled to Guyana, Tasmania, Brazil, Madagascar and Antarctica to conduct research, he nonetheless generates the paintings in his studio based on his photographs– some altered with computer software– as well as images harvested from the Internet. A strange, kindred relationship can be drawn between Rockman and the painter Henri Rousseau, whose inspiration came from illustrated books and the botanical gardens of Paris, as well as tableaux of taxidermied wild animals.

Rockman’s art is equally striking and alarming—it expresses deep concerns about our world’s delicate ecosystems and the conflict between nature and culture. The visitor must slow down so as to absorb and reflect on the content of each compelling, fantastic composition. Even so, the exhibition’s thematic arrangement enhances the progression of the artist’s ongoing examination of nature. The show’s layout coincides with the artist’s method of working—his compositions and subjects evolve within each particular series, such as Artificial Selections, Biosphere, Guyana and American Icons. Additionally, the scale of the exhibit’s galleries is inviting, affording visitors a chance to assimilate at their own pace the otherworldly juxtapositions of animal and plant life within the relics of human construction and devastation. The appeal of this journey increases with brief and intelligent wall cards, disclosing succinct information about each section of the exhibition.

One enters the exhibition through a gallery filled with early works from the 1980s. Pond’s Edge (1986) and Balance of Terror (1988) depict the artist’s initial exploration into the realm of natural history and alerts the viewer to the imminence of an unusual visual voyage. The latter is a seminal piece in Rockman’s artistic evolution–a mixture of fantasy and scientific fact and a blend of abstraction and realism. All fuse in this yellow-green, glowing, uncanny, enigmatic image in which the interior of a translucent apple reveals a worm and is placed in a mysterious spatial environment.

Several other notable pieces surface in the Biosphere series, based on Douglas Trumbull’s eco-thriller, Silent Running. Especially remarkable is, Biosphere Hydrographer’s Canyon (1994), depicting a colorful, complex constellation filled by an infinite array of aquatic organisms, co-existing and freely floating in a luminous galaxy. Golf-Course (1997) is perhaps the most bizarre work, comprised of envirotex, digitized photographs, and scavenged objects on wood. In the upper portion we see a manicured golf course and ‘perfect’ landscape; below this lush surface however, exists not only a secret landfill of lost golf balls, cigarette butts and pizza, but also a monster lurking below with half- eaten human body parts littering its lair. A quirky balance between humor and moderation is achieved throughout this absurd composition.

Hollywood at Night (2006), an exceptional image, is one of the show’s darker paintings not only in its moody blue-black night tone, but also in its content. Here again, Rockman defers to film in depicting this iconic location, where bling and celebrity fall victim to environmental collapse. He reduces the eminent California hillside landmark to a vanished civilization where Los Angeles is barely distinguishable in the distance and a decaying ‘Hollywood’ sign appears against a spectacular sunset. The city’s lights and power are extinguished and only a crescent moon and fireflies sparkle against deteriorating silhouetted structures.

Three densely-painted, large murals anchor this exhibition, mapping out Rockman’s creative path, marking pivotal turning points in his artistic journey. Each helps define the painter’s trajectory and evoke Bosch’s noteworthy triptychs, among his most famous, The Garden of Earthly Delights. Rockman’s huge, theatrical, apocalyptic images address issues of global warming, genetic manipulation and environmental destruction in a way that is simultaneously beautiful, disturbing and inexplicably humorous.

Evolution (1992) is Rockman’s first mural-sized painting, and is as rooted in pop cinematic methods, as it is in actual prehistory. In this startling panorama, the world is adrift in primordial ooze, threatened by a volcano, populated by half man/half woman creatures cavorting, killing, flying and dying, with more than 200 other real or imagined species of plants, animals, and insects. It features the iconic pop culture images of the face-hugging monster from the film, Alien, among others.

Originally commissioned by the Brooklyn Museum, Manifest Destiny (2004), is a wondrous 8 x 24-foot portrayal of an apocalyptic vision of that borough mostly engulfed by water. In this phantasmagorical mural, one observes that New York metropolis reduced to a vast floodplain, from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Brooklyn Museum, following a sea-level rise because of dramatic global warming. Familiar landmarks are flooded, creating a new geology sustaining a variety of marine plants and animals. Rockman maintains, “Manifest Destiny is concerned with the projected domino effect of the industrial revolution 3000 years into the future. It is as scientifically accurate as possible as I wanted to confront the public with a visual display of the repercussions of current trends.” He claims that the painting, “came from desperation that people refused to see the reality of climate change.”

Two equally stunning, yet disturbing, paintings also created in 2005, are Gateway Arch, in which the famous St. Louis Arch stands as a haunting architectural ruin, and Mount Rushmore, in which former terrain is ocean and the presidential busts of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln barely clear the water.

A technique employed in several of his ‘weather drawings’, including Old Dirt Road (2007) and Cambridgeshire (2008), becomes central to the huge mural titled, South (2008). It is more fluid and lighter than his densely detailed paintings. This change signals a formidable shift — perhaps a return to a simpler abstracted approach, as evident in Pond’s Edge (1986). Implemented on intensely gessoed sheets of paper, the painted surface is saturated in vividly exploding stains, spills and drips. In these images, as well as in those evolving later, Rockman clearly moves away from his formerly meticulous, detailed method.

South (2008), a seven-panel piece on paper and over 30 feet long,documents the artist’s 12-day sea voyage from the tip of South America to the Antarctic Peninsula. Placed in the final gallery of the show, the terrain of this perilous scene is inhospitable and any evidence of life in the Antarctic clings to the edges of the ice and coast. South reveals Rockman’s long-term interest in scientific pictorialism—in an interplay between art and science—and alludes to human intervention, providing simultaneous views above and below the water, allowing for his representation of the impossible. Despite the significance of the subject matter, this is the least successful of the three murals—perhaps because of its overt didacticism and clash of abstraction with his earlier styles—yielding a visual distraction.

The viewer must retrace their steps through this disquieting apocalyptic ‘Tale of Tomorrow’ in order to exit the exhibition. A compelling mix of intensely colored realism, scientific components and environmental apprehension coexist in Rockman’s paintings—nothing is genuine except their reference to an impending crisis. None of these images represent actual landscape paintings—instead they act as types of extensions of 19th century dioramas—inanimate still life’s that beckon us to inspect their urgent ecological messages. The artist’s nightmarish visions appear to inhabit a zone somewhere between art and activism, echoing Al Gore’s noted work, An Inconvenient Truth. This art privileges imagination over accuracy, portraying what has never been seen, or at least not yet! Ultimately Alexis Rockman’s art neither praises or demeans humankind; it merely invites thought, dialogue and reflection.

By Elaine A. King, Ph.D. ©, Contributing Writer

Alexis Rockman, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., through May 8, 2011

Dr. King is Professor, History of Art, Theory & Museum Studies, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. She is a critic and frequent guest curator, traveling widely and writing a on a variety of topics related to fine art for ARTES and other publications.

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1.  Joanna Marsh writes the catalogue, co-published by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and D GILES LIMITED, with contributions from Thomas Lovejoy, biodiversity chair at the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment in Washington, D.C.; and Kevin J. Avery, senior research scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The book is for sale through the museum’s website and store.