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Julie Mehretu (b. 1970, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) is a contemporary artist whose large-scale paintings, drawings and prints explore the psychogeography of space. Constructed in several layers, her works offer a complex and visually dynamic study of urban layouts and architectural diagrams.
Inspired by archival sources relating to ancient city plans, East Asian calligraphy, modernist architecture, urban grid plans, cemeteries, tomb stones and ruins, Mehretu’s works build worlds hinging between utopia and abstraction. With the understanding that architecture serves as a connecting thread throughout social history, her works are two-dimensional studies of how power, dystopia and the built environment intersect and correlate.
Using a combination of tight graphic drawings and broader gestures, Mehretu has constructed a signature visual vocabulary. Her works are intricately layered with overlapping coats of color, ink and acrylic paint which are often sanded to appear polished and translucent. On top of the several coats she has applied to her canvas, Mehretu makes spontaneous, calligraphic marks. Despite the dense nature of her process, the resulting works convey light and airy visual motifs.
Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1970 to an American mother and an Ethiopian father, Mehretu came to Michigan with her family in 1977. She studied at Kalamazoo College and the University Cheik Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal, before receiving an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Mehretu currently lives between New York City and Berlin.
Mehretu’s demonstrated interest in layering has lent itself to a concentrated investigation in printmaking. She has experimented with lithography, intaglio, engraving, screen printing, chine collé, aquatint and spit-bite techniques. She uses multiple plates to layer different processes over one another.
In 2019, Mehretu was invited to participate in participate in the Venice Biennale. The same year, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art co-organized Mehretu's first career retrospective, which travelled to the High Museum of Art. Her work has recently been included in solo and group exhibitions at the University of Cambridge (2019), Fralin Museum of Art (2018), Museum of the African Diaspora (2018), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2017), Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art (2017), Walker Art Center (2017), Whitney Museum of American Art (2017), Modern Art Museum (2016), Baltimore Museum of Art (2016), Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens (2016), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2016), Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart (2016), Poole Museum (2016).
Her work is included in major public collections, among them the Brooklyn Museum, NY; Carnegie Museum of Art, PA; Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; Hammer Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Modern Art, NY, New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY; Philadelphia Art Museum, PA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Seattle Art Museum, WA and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.
Inspired by archival sources relating to ancient city plans, East Asian calligraphy, modernist architecture, urban grid plans, cemeteries, tomb stones and ruins, Mehretu’s works build worlds hinging between utopia and abstraction. With the understanding that architecture serves as a connecting thread throughout social history, her works are two-dimensional studies of how power, dystopia and the built environment intersect and correlate.
Using a combination of tight graphic drawings and broader gestures, Mehretu has constructed a signature visual vocabulary. Her works are intricately layered with overlapping coats of color, ink and acrylic paint which are often sanded to appear polished and translucent. On top of the several coats she has applied to her canvas, Mehretu makes spontaneous, calligraphic marks. Despite the dense nature of her process, the resulting works convey light and airy visual motifs.
Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1970 to an American mother and an Ethiopian father, Mehretu came to Michigan with her family in 1977. She studied at Kalamazoo College and the University Cheik Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal, before receiving an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Mehretu currently lives between New York City and Berlin.
Mehretu’s demonstrated interest in layering has lent itself to a concentrated investigation in printmaking. She has experimented with lithography, intaglio, engraving, screen printing, chine collé, aquatint and spit-bite techniques. She uses multiple plates to layer different processes over one another.
In 2019, Mehretu was invited to participate in participate in the Venice Biennale. The same year, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art co-organized Mehretu's first career retrospective, which travelled to the High Museum of Art. Her work has recently been included in solo and group exhibitions at the University of Cambridge (2019), Fralin Museum of Art (2018), Museum of the African Diaspora (2018), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2017), Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art (2017), Walker Art Center (2017), Whitney Museum of American Art (2017), Modern Art Museum (2016), Baltimore Museum of Art (2016), Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens (2016), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2016), Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart (2016), Poole Museum (2016).
Her work is included in major public collections, among them the Brooklyn Museum, NY; Carnegie Museum of Art, PA; Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; Hammer Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Modern Art, NY, New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY; Philadelphia Art Museum, PA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Seattle Art Museum, WA and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.