Julie Mehretu is an American artist born in 1970 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, she lives and works in New York City. She received a B.A. from Kalamazoo College, Michigan, studied at the University Cheik Anta Diop, Dakar Senegal, and received a Master’s of Fine Art with honors from The Rhode Island School of Design in 1997. On September 2021, The National Academy of Design has elected Julie Mehretu as National Academician for her contribution to contemporary American Art.
Julie Mehretu’s paintings are structured through layers of clear acrylic, architectural tracings, drawing, ink, graphite, erasure and mark-making. The works are built up in stages with additive elements generating, erasing, or re-inscribing the previous.
I saw Julie Mehretu's work at the Marian Goodman Gallery in 2013. LIMINAL SQUARED was the inaugural exhibition at the gallery's New York space.
What fascinates and inspires me the most of Julie's work, is the ability to describe humanity as an anthropologist would do, and then translate the many different aspects of the human experience into memorable and mesmerizing masterpieces.
©Julie Mehretu - Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery
