Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld
February 13 – July 19, 2025
An artistic exploration of humanity’s complex relationship with the environment explores the shadowy depths of our threatened natural world. Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld, on view at the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami from February 13 through July 20, brings together two pioneering environmental artists for their first joint exhibition.
This groundbreaking presentation features twenty-five works, including sculptures, paintings and works on paper, showcasing how these visionary artists anticipated today’s pressing ecological challenges. Visitors can experience Rockman’s large-scale landscape paintings alongside Dion’s immersive installations, which evoke traditional museum dioramas and specimen cabinets. Both artists blend scientific methodology with allegorical elements and dark humor to create compelling commentary on environmental issues.
The exhibition’s centerpiece is “American Landscape,” a new collaborative installation created specifically for this showing. This distinctive diorama, set on a golf course, presents a zoological group portrait featuring resilient species that have adapted to human-modified environments – offering a glimpse into what the artists consider our future global ecosystem.
This exhibition is presented through the American Federation of Arts, with support from Elizabeth Belfer and Victoria E. Triplett. Additional funding comes from various organizations including the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the City of Coral Gables and Beaux Arts Miami, among others.
Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman are artists whose work probes our strained relationship with the environment. They were among the first to anticipate the epic ecological problems we now face. Throughout the course of their respective careers, both artists have collaborated on environmental research expeditions and publications. This exhibition is the first to consider both artists in a single presentation. Twenty-five sculptures, paintings, works on paper, and a new collaborative installation guide visitors on an absorbing journey into the shadowy depths of the threatened natural world.
While Rockman is a painter of large-scale landscapes, and Dion is known for immersive installations that recall museum dioramas or specimen cabinets, the artists share a common approach. Their work is informed by scientific methodologies and enlivened by allegory, dark humor, and popular culture tropes. Rockman’s paintings are shown alongside Dion’s installations throughout the exhibition. Both artists collaborated on American Landscape, a sculptural installation created especially for this exhibition. This zoological group portrait diorama, set on a golf course, features a cast of scrappy species that, according to the artists, successfully “exploit niches and opportunities generated by a human-transformed landscape” representing “the future global ecosystem.”
The exhibition was made possible by the American Federation of Arts, with support provided by Elizabeth Belfer and Victoria E. Triplett. The Lowe Art Museum’s presentation of this exhibition is made possible by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the City of Coral Gables; Beaux Arts Miami; the Lowe Advisory Council; Tony Ulloa; Waqas Wajahat; and Lowe members.
Image: Alexis Rockman, The Farms, 2000. Oil and acrylic on wood panel, 96 x 120 inches. Collection of Joy of Giving Something, Inc., New York. Courtesy American Federation of Arts.
Lowe exhibitions and programs are funded in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts; the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, Miami-Dade Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the City of Coral Gables; Beaux Arts Miami; Lowe Advisory Council; and Lowe members.
