Born in 1962, Rockman was raised in New York City. As a child, he explored Central Park, watched early nature documentaries on television, and frequented the Museum of Natural History, where his mother worked for anthropologist Margaret Mead. This led to an interest in drawing animals and their environments. Rockman pursued art at the Rhode Island School of Design and Manhattan’s School of Visual Arts, and gained early recognition in the mid-1980s for his eerie bio-botanical scenes. The scope of his imagery expanded as he explored historical and contemporary artistic expression and mined the vernacular and practice of scientific representation. Driven by an intense curiosity about the natural world and an ambition to explore the pressing questions of our times, Rockman has been recognized for his impressive artistic range and for the intensity of his commitment to the environment and its preservation.