April
6-August 3, 2003
JULIE MEHRETU: DRAWING INTO PAINTING
Exhibition
GALLERY 7
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Julie Mehretu's
biography reads a bit like an atlas. She was born in Ethiopia, raised in
Michigan, educated in Senegal and Rhode Island, and now lives in New York.
It is no surprise, then, that her work incorporates the dynamic visual vocabulary
of maps, urban-planning grids, and architectural forms as it alternates
between historical narratives and fictional landscapes. One of the artists
featured in the Walker's 2001 exhibition Painting at the Edge of the
World, Mehretu creates beautifully layered paintings that combine abstract
forms with the familiar, such as the Roman Coliseum and floor plans from
international airports. This exhibition features nine newly commissioned,
large-scale paintings and concludes her yearlong artist residency at the
Walker. |
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Julie
Mehretu
RENEGADE DELIRIUM
2002
private collection, London
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Mehretu combines a personal language of signs and symbols with architectural
imagery to create her elaborate semi-abstractions. Simultaneously engaged
with the formal concerns of color and line and the social concerns of
power, history, globalism, and personal narrative, she is interested in
"the multifaceted layers of place, space, and time that impact the formation
of personal and communal identity." The underlying structure of her work
consists of socially charged public spaces--government buildings, museums,
stadiums, schools, and airports--drawn in the form of maps and diagrams.
She inscribes her own narrative into these decontextualized, highly controlled
spaces through the layering of personal markings. Mehretu achieves an
effect of compositional maelstrom, as elements advance and recede within
the graphically ambiguous spaces. With paintings that blur the line between
figuration and abstraction while constantly referencing the world around
us, she creates perfect metaphors for the increasingly interconnected
and complex character of the 21st century.
Mehretu was the recipient of the 2001 Penny McCall Award. Her work has
been included in Greater New York, P.S.1 Contemporary Arts Center,
New York (2000), and she has participated in numerous group exhibitions,
including one at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson
(2000). Most recently, her work has appeared in Free Style at the
Studio Museum in Harlem (2001); The Americans at the Barbican Gallery
in London (2001); the Busan Biennale in Korea (2002); the 8th Baltic Triennial
in Vilnius, Lithuania (2002); and Drawing Now: Eight Propositions
(2002) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Julie
Mehretu
DISPERSION
2002
collection Nicolas and Jeanne Greenberg, New York
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IN THE WALKER
ART CENTER SHOP
JULIE MEHRETU: DRAWING
INTO PAINTING
This fully illustrated catalogue features Julie Mehretu's newest paintings and
an in-depth interview with the artist. Available May 2003. Softcover; $24.95 ($22.46
Walker members).
ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE:
MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL ARE EAST AFRICAN CITIES
Check out Julie Mehretu's online project: tcEastAfrica.walkerart.org
The hundreds of photographs and sound recordings created by the residency participants
have become part of the Hennepin
History Museum's permanent collection. A selection is on display April 19-October
31, 2003.
RELATED EVENTS
FREE
TOURS
SATURDAY, JULY 5, 2 PM
SATURDAY, JULY 12, 2 PM
SUNDAY, JULY 27, 2
PM
SUNDAY, AUGUST 3, 2 PM
Join the Walker Art Center's knowledgeable tour guides for a lively, engaging,
and informative tour of the exhibition.
JUNE EVENTS
FREE
TOURS
SUNDAY, JUNE 8, 2 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 2 PM
Join the Walker Art
Center's knowledgeable tour guides for a lively, engaging, and informative tour
of the exhibition.
MAY EVENTS
ONLINE
FORUM WITH JULIE MEHRETU
MAY 5-9
Join Walker artist-in-residence
Julie Mehretu online to discuss various issues--family history, migration, geography,
war, cultural history, finding/creating home, personal narrative--that recur
in her paintings and her residency project with Twin Cities teens. Log on to
ask questions, make comments, or read what others have to say. Registration
is free.
THE WALKER ART CENTER'S ONLINE FORUMS ARE HOSTED BY MNARTISTS.ORG,
A PROJECT OF THE MCKNIGHT FOUNDATION AND THE WALKER ART CENTER.
MINNEAPOLIS
AND ST. PAUL ARE EAST AFRICAN CITIES: COMMUNITY FORUM
THURSDAY, MAY 8, 7 PM, LECTURE ROOM
Participants from Mehretu's
artist residency project discuss their experiences. For more information about
the project, visit tcEastAfrica.walkerart.org.
FREE TOURS
SATURDAY, MAY 10, 2 PM
SUNDAY, MAY 18, 2 PM
SATURDAY, MAY 24, 2 PM
Join the Walker Art
Center's knowledgeable tour guides for a lively, engaging, and informative tour
of the exhibition.
APRIL
EVENTS
OPENING-DAY
DIALOGUE: JULIE MEHRETU: DRAWING INTO PAINTING
SUNDAY, APRIL 6, 2 PM FREE WITH GALLERY ADMISSION GALLERY 7
Join Julie Mehretu
and exhibition curator Douglas Fogle for a conversation about Mehretu's paintings.
A reception follows.
FREE TOURS
SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2 PM
SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 2 PM
Join the Walker Art
Center's knowledgeable tour guides for a lively, engaging, and informative tour
of the exhibition.
JULIE MEHRETU: DRAWING INTO PAINTING IS MADE POSSIBLE
BY GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM THE VOYAGEUR FOUNDATION FUND OF THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION.