Alexis Rockman might be called an unnatural history artist.

Drawing on the visual language of natural history artists, botanical illustrators and and paleontological reconstruction artists, along with a fascination for diorama-style cut-aways and mural-like panoramas, Rockman puts the the time machine in the other gear and moves us into the future, depicting familiar landmarks in the aftermath of ecological or bioengineering disasters.

He also applies his skills to more direct portrayals of the natural world, but it is his fantastic visions, sometimes surreal in their dreamlike juxtapositions of animal and plant life with the artifacts of human construction, that resonate most strongly.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is displaying a major exhibition of Rockman’s work, covering the span of his career with almost 50 paintings.

Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow takes its name from the first chapter of Rachel Carson’s A Silent Spring, the first book to bring the fragility of the ecosystem into the awareness of the general public. There is a gallery on the museum’s site.

Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow is also the title of a book created to accompany the exhibition.

Rockman’s own site has galleries of his work from several series and different periods of his career.

There is also a gallery on Wired Science that allows a quick overview of his work.

Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow is on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum until may 8, 2011.

John Singer Sargent was American by birth, but spent most of his career and adult life in England and Europe.

In 1884 he exhibited his painting called Madame X at the Salon in Paris. Though famous now, the painting became the subject of scandal at the time, a kind of attention that Sargent didn’t relish, and the unwanted drama left him exhausted.

Sargent retreated to the English countryside, and for several years painted largely to please himself, rather than his usual concentration on society portraits.

Though Sargent could really be called a “painterly realist”, it was during this period that he painted many of the works that have earned him placement among the painters considered to be “American Impressionists”.

In Sargent’s case the experimentation with the broken color, effects of light and plein air painting of the the French Impressionists came directly from his association and friendship with Claude Monet. Sargent visited Monet several times at Giverny, Monet visited Sargent in England, and the two corresponded. Sargent expressed great admiration for Monet and his work.

The Adelson Galleries in New York, which has mounted several impressive Sargent exhibitions in the past, is presenting a show of Sargent’s work from that period, 1883 to 1889, drawing on works from the gallery’s collection and borrowing major pieces from museums in the U.S. and England.

The press release for the exhibition gives some background.

Though he adopted some of the superficial characteristics of Monet’s approach, Sargent never fully painted in the Impressionist style. His experiments, however, are among some of his most recognizable works, like his painting of artist Paul Helleu Sketching with His Wife (image above, top)

Missing here is his wonderful Carnation, Lily, Lily Rose (a personal favorite of mine), though studies (image above, third down, left) and related works point to its importance in this period of Sargent’s career.

Sargent and Impressionism is on view until December 18, 2010. There is a painting on the gallery’s Current Exhibition page, and a gallery of 31 images, with thumbnails here. (This may change when the exhibition closes.)

There is also a good review of the show from the New York Times, with an accompanying slideshow of images.