The Plastic Age began in the 1950s, when the cheap and easily produced material quickly became a staple of everyday life. Pop artists like James Rosenquist played with its prominence, using it to telegraph the power of consumer culture, which was shaping life itself. The synthetic material soon appeared in the trash works of Nouveau Realism, as well as in assemblages and installations. Microplastics, meanwhile, are now in every corner of the environment as well as in the bodies of living creatures, including us. After a successful run at the American Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, site-specific commissions by five U.S. artists, designers, and architects—Xavi L. Aguirre, Simon Anton, Ang Li, Norman Teague, and Lauren Yeager—have been adapted for the Carnegie Museum of Art; the works look at how the material has shaped our economy and ecology. It’s a topic that may feel close to home for the people of Pittsburgh. The state is known for its petrochemical manufacturing, from the Beaver County cracker plant to fracklands of the Marcellus Shale. —Elena Clavarino