Collection: Alexis Rockman: Shipwrecks

Princeton University Art Museum

Saturday, September 24, 2022–Sunday, November 27, 2022

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.

Alexis Rockman (born 1962) is a contemporary American painter known for his fantastical paintings tackling ecological issues—such as climate change and species extinction—through his large-scale artworks. Rockman studied at the Art Student’s League and the Rhode Island School of Design before earning a BFA at the School of Visual Arts in 1985. He had a mid-career retrospective at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2010. Rockman currently lives and works in New York, NY.

Alexis Rockman: Shipwrecks is organized by Guild Hall of East Hampton, N.Y. and presented by Princeton University Art Museum at Art@Bainbridge, Princeton, NJ

A portion of the proceeds from sales of products featuring works in the Shipwrecks collection is paid back to the artist.