The exhibition Alexis Rockman: Shipwrecks will open at Guild Hall in East Hampton, on Saturday, June 12.
Curated by Executive Director Andrea Grover, the exhibition includes large-scale, fantastical paintings and watercolors that tackle pressing ecological issues, and updates and transforms the tradition of maritime painting to create powerful meditations on migration, climate change, and globalization. The exhibition will be on view at Guild Hall through July 26.
“Through the lens of the shipwreck, Alexis Rockman examines the complexity of the human psyche, the rearrangement of material culture and economies, and the exploitation of life, with its intended and unintended consequences. His paintings awaken imagination to the colossal impact of the Anthropocene, and with any luck inspire better stewardship of the planet,” said Grover.
The genesis of this exhibition can be traced to September 2018 when Grover moderated a conversation with Rockman at the Amagansett Free Library. Having recently curated Radical Seafaring at the Parrish Art Museum, Grover was intrigued when Rockman shared that he was working on a series of shipwreck paintings. From there, the exhibition concept was born and the artist has since created nearly 50 extraordinary new works to be exhibited at Guild Hall.
The exhibition premiered at partner institution Peabody Essex Museum in Salem Massachusetts in their East India Marine Hall in March 2021.
Rockman draws upon imagery from historical paintings and reimagines the scenes with compelling compositions that highlight ecological impact. His 2017 painting, “The Sinking of the Brig Helen,” vividly revives a 19th-century tragedy. After British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace dedicated four years to biological research in the Amazon rainforest, his ship, the brig Helen, caught fire in the middle of the Atlantic on its return to London. While the crew gathered essentials onto lifeboats, flames engulfed Wallace’s extensive animal and plant collections, detailed notes, and scientific drawings. The fire consumed thousands of his specimens — butterflies, moths, beetles, ants, and anteater and manatee skeletons — and several living monkeys, parrots, macaws, and other birds perished. This painting, among others in the exhibition highlights the insatiable human appetite for governing the natural world.
The exhibition is accompanied by the catalogue Alexis Rockman: Shipwrecks (DelMonico Books, 2021), edited by Andrea Grover, with an introduction by Daniel Finamore and Trevor Smith, and contributions by Sasha Archibald, Chanda Laine Carey, and Brett Littman. The catalogue is available for $40 at shop.guildhall.org or by in person at Guild Hall.
For the opening weekend, on Saturday, June 12 at 7 PM the event Art and Cinema: A Conversation with Alexis Rockman and Carter Burwell, moderated by Andrea Grover, will take place. At 8:30 PM there will be an outdoor screening of Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi,” introduced by Alexis Rockman.
Visit www.guildhall.org for more info.