Mark Dion (1961) and Alexis Rockman (1962), American Landscape, 2022, Mixed-media diorama with taxidermy, found objects, and painted background, 96 x 192 x 87 in.. Courtesy of the artists
Such an honor to attend the opening (Sep 11, 2025) of Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld, at the Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State, University Park, PA. A beautiful installation of this AFA-organized exhibition! The first two-person exhibition of these celebrated artists, Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld explores their shared allegiances and sustaining friendship over a period of three decades. Dion and Rockman were among the earliest artists to address, and even anticipate, the epic ecological problems. Together, they have embarked on tropical expeditions; published dialogues; and co-edited the pioneering 1996 book Concrete Jungle, on anthropogenic ecosystems.
The exhibition will beget a voyage of discovery through various pressing subjects, with the artists’ works serving as enticing guides. Beginning with a section evoking the fieldwork of pioneering naturalists and explorers, visitors will encounter field-station tableaux by Dion alongside Rockman’s paintings of fauna and dramatic terrains, often with cross-sectioned views. Ensuing works will address such themes as invasive and endangered species, beleaguered aquatic environments, anthropogenic landscapes, and future scenarios evincing effects of climate change and waning biodiversity. An exhibition highlight will be the debut of a grand sculptural diorama, titled American Landscape, created especially for the tour and marking an unprecedented collaboration between Dion and Rockman.
This zoological group portrait, set on a golf course, will feature 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 will also include a selection of related drawings and prints by both Dion and Rockman. In addition, participating museums will have the option of developing, along with the artists, an adjunct “Chamber of Wonders” display, conceived as a flexible cabinet of curiosities intended to inspire both awe and concern about the natural world.
The collaborative work American Landscape was created for the exhibition and commissioned by the American Federation of Arts.
On view from August 23 to December 7, 2025, at the Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State, University Park, PA. Organized by the American Federation of Arts, and after The Bruce, VAMoCA, The Tang, and The Lowe, this is the last museum partner in this successful tour.
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