"Alexis Rockman: Future Evolution"
2001-04-27 until 2001-08-19
Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington
Seattle, WA, USA United States of America

Alexis Rockman's meticulous paintings of naturally or artificially mutated creatures are information-rich depictions of the effect the human race has had - and will have - on the planet, especially on plants and animals. Rockman casts dark predictions of the role that humans play in determining the future course of natural history. Recently he has focused his magnifying glass on the explosion of advances in genetic engineering driven by the biotech industry. Simultaneously straddling science and art, fantasy and reality, as well as beauty and the grotesque, Rockman's work has been described as Hieronymus Bosch meets science textbook illustration. Indeed, with a fair amount of dark humor, his paintings are hyper-realistic even in their improbability.

For the Henry Art Gallery exhibition, Rockman advances dystopic visions of the landscapes of the future, inhabited by species of plants and animals that have evolved to adapt to the world man has irreversibly altered. The paintings and studies in Future Evolution expand upon the issues explored in A Recent History of the World, a mural commissioned by the Washington State Arts Commission and the University of Washington in 1997 and now housed in the Fisheries Building

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Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Washington

Other Important Exhibitions in Seattle