Julie Mehretu was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1970. She received her MFA in 1997 from Rhode Island school of Design, Providence. She lives and works in New York. She pariticipated in several group exhibitions such as ‘Poetic Justice’, 8th Istanbul Biennial (2003), Whitney Biennial; São Paolo Biennial and Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2004), the Biennale of Sydney and the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2006), not to mention her solo exhibitions; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; REDCAT, Los Angeles and Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (2003), St Louis Art Museum (2005) and MUSAC, Léon, Spain (2006), ‘Grey Area’, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (2009) and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010)
Mehretu’s work is large-scale. The paintings are very gestural combined with drawing material using such as pencil, pen and ink to create mark making technique over built up layers of acrylic paint on canvas. Artist uses abstraction to express the color, scale and subject matter which is the elements of time and space. She usually uses art history to reference her paintings as well as geographic images, histories and war. Her works also refers to the elements of architecture and mapping.
Julie Mehretu, The Mathematics of Droves, 2014, White Cube
Julie Mehretu, Dispersion,” 2002, Ink and acrylic on canvas, 90 x 144 inches
“Julie Mehretu.” White Cube. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2016.
http://whitecube.com/artists/julie_mehretu/
http://www.art21.org/slideshows/julie-mehretu/artwork-survey-2000s
drawing into space 