Alexis Rockman: Manifest Destiny

Alexis Rockman, born in 1962, is a leader among a young generation of artists who have returned to figurative content. Inspired by the natural sciences, he creates perverse yet seductive paintings that explore the intersections between biology and technology, reality and fantasy. Rockman draws inspiration from botanical and zoological illustrations and even Dutch still lifes, achieving bravura painterly effects. The resulting balance of formal and theoretical issues challenges the viewer to respond with both pleasure and terror.Rockman's earliest work deals with natural history in ways that are eerie but believable, culminating in Evolution, a painted diorama 7.5 meters long. His later Biosphere series places mutant animals in outer-space zoos. Rockman's latest work is inspired by a recent trip to Guyana and by late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century science expedition narratives. The graphic presentation of this full-color monograph is a tour de force, with reproductions of Rockman's paintings that move beyond their original formats to become new expressions of his beautifully rendered and thought-provoking projects.