Hudson (Show)Room Exhibition: Julie Mehretu

03.13.01

Julie Mehretu was born in 1970 in Ethiopia. After studies in Senegal, she received
her BFA from Kalamazoo College and her MFA from the Rhode Island School of
Design. Mehretu was a CORE fellow at the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine
Arts in Houston, TX in 1998-99. Mehretu currently lives and works in New York, NY.
She has shown throughout Texas and the United States, including solo exhibitions at
Barbara Davis Gallery and Project Row Houses, Houston, TX. Her work has been
included in exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX (1999);
Diverseworks Artspace, Houston, TX (1998); Exit Art, New York, NY (1999); and the
Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, TX (1999). In 2000, her work drew attention in
New York with its visibility in P.S. 1's Greater New York and the Drawing Center's
Selections Fall 2000. Her work is currently included in the exhibition Painting at the
Edge of the World at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. MN. Upcoming projects in
2001 include Freestyle at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; and a solo
exhibition at The Project, New York, NY.

Mehretu's works are part painting, part drawing. Intricately rendered, her elaborate
semi-abstractions recall cartography and architecture, urban planning and science fiction.
With layers of mylar, velum, paper, ink, and paint, Mehretu arranges lines and symbols
into complex systems. Her mechanized technique is counterbalanced with flowing,
gestural form with a pleasing color palate. The exhibition includes paintings and
drawings from 1998 to 2000. The selected works highlight Mehretu's mastery of scale
and line.

Mehretu's subject matter centers on public spaces?ernment buildings, airports,
highways, street grids. Socially charged, her work presents a visual record of a future
environment. Although her abstractions appear to be plans of some sort, the artist keeps
the narrative ambiguous. The viewer is left to question whether the paintings and
drawings are documents of existing space or proposals for new sites. Her sprawling
imagery hints at urban development, capitalism, and technology, inviting a critique of the
impact of globalism on the individual.

Mehretu presents a non-linear arrangement of images and information with specific
cultural and historical references floating through time and space. In this way, her work
mirrors our fast-paced digital life and overwhelms the viewer with a dizzying array of
choices and opportunities.

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