GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.- A multi-faceted exhibition by New York-based artist Alexis Rockman will examine the forces – past, present and future – shaping the Great Lakes, one of the most emblematic and ecologically significant environments in the world. Alexis Rockman: The Great Lakes Cycle is organized by the Grand Rapids Art Museum and on view Jan. 27-April 29, 2018. The project features all new work by the artist: five mural-sized paintings; six vibrant, large-scale watercolors; and a selection of monochrome field drawings based on his travel, interviews and extensive research in the Great Lakes region.

“The Great Lakes Cycle will inform and inspire viewers regarding the history of the Great Lakes, current challenges and threats to the region, and opportunities to positively shape its future,” said GRAM Director and CEO Dana Friis-Hansen, who curated the exhibition. “GRAM is committed to fostering dialogue around environmental sustainability. Our proximity to Lake Michigan offers the perfect venue for an exhibition highlighting the majesty and significance of the Lakes while identifying factors – visible and invisible – that threaten the system. The detail and precision of Alexis Rockman’s paintings and works on paper, combined with his rich imagination and narrative gift, will be a delight and a challenge to GRAM’s visitors.”

The Great Lakes – Erie, Huron, Ontario, Michigan and Superior – hold 20 percent of the world’s fresh water and form an interconnected and complex system that provides drinking water for more than 60 million people and habitation for more than 3,500 species of plants, mammals, birds, amphibians and fish. Meanwhile, the Lakes are impacted by massive threats to their preservation, including climate change, globalization, mass agriculture and urban sprawl.

Rockman’s research in the region has yielded his most ambitious body of work to date, anchored by five 6’ x 12’ panoramic paintings exploring themes he uncovered during his Great Lakes expeditions to eight states and provinces in the U.S. and Canada. Each painting is accompanied by a key illustrating and identifying the included species, artifacts and historical references. The paintings capture the physical and ecological transformation of the Lakes through time, beginning with the Pleistocene Era, moving through the centuries to present-day concerns and looking forward to imagine the future.

“Ecological history and natural history have often informed my work, so the Great Lakes are an especially fascinating place,” said Rockman. “As I have worked on this project for the past five years, the environmental issues facing the Lakes have become even more critical. My expedition in the region, observations of the area and conversations with experts have helped me tell a story that is, I hope, a compelling call for action on behalf of this natural treasure.”

The five massive oil and alkyd paintings are rich in scientific detail, inspired by historic panoramic paintings and 19th-century landscapes, and are enhanced by the artist’s expressive imagination. “Pioneers,” which focuses on water and aquatic life, includes the earliest Great Lakes fishes as well as species introduced by either intentional or accidental human action. The painting features an oceangoing freighter, ejecting a dirty cloud of ballast drainage that carries dozens of invasive species from as far away as the Caspian and Black Seas. “Cascade” details how human activity such as hunting, fishing, trapping, mining, shipping and recreation have both enriched and threatened the Lakes. “Spheres of Influence” considers how the interaction of water with the atmosphere – wind, waves, weather – connects the Lakes to the rest of the world, including massive bird and insect migrations and the history of human transportation.

The fourth painting, “Watershed,” focuses on the land and waters around the Lakes, including how rivers and streams can both play a role in keeping the Lakes healthy and refreshed, and adversely affect the interconnected ecosystems with runoff and other side effects of human activity. Finally, “Forces of Change” examines the challenges and opportunities of recovery in the post-industrial age, and features an allegorical monster emerging from the depths, representing the struggle between the polluted layers from years of disregard and today’s efforts to conserve and protect the environment.

In addition to the murals, a constellation of six vibrant, 74” x 52” watercolors and a selection of 28 field drawings created exclusively with organic materials collected at various Great Lakes sites enhance the scope and diversity of the exhibition.

Born in 1962 and raised in New York City, Rockman has been the subject of many international solo and group exhibitions, including a major retrospective organized at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2010. His work is also included in public and private collections around the world, and he has held a number of teaching posts at prestigious institutions, such as Columbia University and Harvard University.

Rockman synthesizes human history, natural science and art history to create visual vistas that reveal unexpected relationships across time and space. Since the mid-1980s, he has created a dramatic and distinct body of epic-scale paintings and works on paper that draw from his deft artistic skills, rich visual inventiveness, deep scientific awareness, broad art historical knowledge and a passionate concern about the Earth’s ecological future.

The adopted son of an Australian jazz musician and American urban archeologist, Rockman spent his childhood exploring Central Park, studying natural history guide books, watching nature documentary films, frequenting the American Museum of Natural History dioramas and creating his own vivariums, all experiences that have shaped The Great Lakes Cycle.