2016 Catalogue Archive

The back-and-forth of Julie Mehretu’s process – projecting, marking, erasing, leaving and returning to the piece – incorporates movement, time, and a sense of place into her work. Her paintings of ink and acrylic on canvas build upon architectural and structural elements that contain her frenetic marks. The centrally composed and angular structure of her earlier work has shifted in recent years into curving gestural lines, hatch marks, and a more open construction. In this untitled work from Mehretu’s series inspired by the aftereffects of the ongoing conflict in Syria, layered washes and ink read as chaotic rubble, removed of the architectural specificity found in earlier pieces. Mehretu is well-represented in institutions around the world, and in 2015 was awarded the National Medal of Arts by the US State Department.