Alexis Rockman at Sperone Westwater Gallery

Human-created pollution vies with a vividly colored frog to attract the eye in Alexis Rockman’s 2012 watercolor titled ‘Effluent,’ now on view at Sperone Westwater Gallery.  Rockman’s artful activism appears alongside new field drawings from New Mexico of plants and animals from the region that are extinct, living or threatened.  (On view on the Lower East Side through August 3rd).

Alexis Rockman, Effluent, watercolor and ink on paper, 18 x 24 inches, 2012.

Alexis Rockman at Sperone Westwater

Inspired by a news story about a dolphin that swam into Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal and died the same day from the pollution, New York artist Alexis Rockman conjured this vision of the canal as a cauldron of contamination in which the strong adapt to survive.  (At Sperone Westwater on the Lower East Side through Nov 2nd).  

Alexis Rockman, Gowanus, oil on wood, 2013.