Visit the first UK solo exhibition in a public gallery of the work of internationally renowned artist Julie Mehretu.
Invited to exhibit alongside the exhibition ARTIST ROOMS: Louise Bourgeois, Julie Mehretu (born 1970 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, based in New York) has made an installation of new drawings and monotypes for Kettle’s Yard.
Inspired by current world issues, including race riots in the USA and the war in Syria, and drawing from her personal biography and the history of abstraction, Mehretu’s work interrogates the present with urgency and lyricism. She is best known for her densely layered large-scale paintings, which incorporate architectural blueprints, diagrams and – more recently – found photographs, overwritten by gestural and graphic marks.
The works prompt consideration of our relationship with images in a world which can be said to be saturated by images. The new series of richly layered monotypes will be arranged in a grid. They extend Mehretu’s dynamic exploration of the potential of drawing and mark making, which are fundamental to her practice. Made with ink on acrylic panels, which are printed onto paper and painted, all of the works are investigations into composition itself. Each work is both distinct and a product of the same process, part of a larger whole.
