Shipwrecks have long symbolized humans’ inability to control the natural world, and the extreme encounters with nature that can result. In this new body of work, the New York–based artist Alexis Rockman reenvisions shipwreck narratives to focus less on human drama than on the broad planetary implications of the forces behind them, including trade, migration, colonization, and globalization. The artist’s vivid series of large canvases and intimate watercolors points to how an increasingly interconnected world has generated profound ecological change. Rockman is among the most accomplished contemporary eco-artists, having for several decades examined issues at the nexus of natural history, climate change, and biodiversity. With Shipwrecks, he reimagines specific events in maritime history from a perspective that considers all life-forms. Curated at Princeton by Karl Kusserow, John Wilmerding Curator of American Art.
Art@Bainbridge | Alexis Rockman: Shipwrecks
Organized by Guild Hall of East Hampton and presented by Princeton University Art Museum at Art@Bainbridge, Princeton, NJ
Art@Bainbridge is made possible through the generous support of the Virginia and Bagley Wright, Class of 1946, Program Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art; the Kathleen C. Sherrerd Program Fund for American Art; Joshua R. Slocum, Class of 1998, and Sara Slocum; Barbara and Gerald Essig; and Rachelle Belfer Malkin, Class of 1986, and Anthony E. Malkin. Additional support is provided by Sueyun and Gene Locks, Class of 1959; the Humanities Council; and The Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative at Princeton (NAISIP).
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