The Museum of Contemporary Art (moCa) Cleveland presents the exhibition Alexis Rockman: The Great Lakes Cycle. The Great Lakes Cycle is Alexis Rockman’s most ambitious body of work to date. Rockman, an acclaimed painter and environmental activist, creates ecologically-focused works that seduce and provoke with equal verve. Blending extensive research, diverse techniques, and site-specific materials like sand or soil, Rockman’s paintings and drawings document history while also imagining future environments.
The exhibition includes five new, mural-sized paintings; a constellation of flora and fauna “field drawings;" and a suite of watercolors that all portray the evolution of the Great Lakes—which are among the world’s most beautiful, economically significant, and ecologically complex regions on the planet. Rockman’s new series celebrates the natural majesty and global importance of the Great Lakes while exploring how they are threatened by factors such as climate change, globalization, invasive species, mass agriculture, and urban sprawl.
Organized by the Grand Rapids Art Museum; with major support provided by an anonymous donor and coordinated at moCa Cleveland by Deputy Director Megan Lykins Reich.