An American artist of Ethiopian origin, Julie Mehretu draws her inspiration from architecture and built environment, and more particularly from industrial and social interaction in urban life. She is known for her large-format paintings, made of layers of acrylic materials covered with drawings made with paint, pencil and ink. Her works have been the subject of numerous exhibitions, like Julie Mehretu: A Universal History of Everything and Nothing, Centro Botin, Santander, Fundação Serralves, Porto; Julie Mehretu: Hoodnyx, Voodoo and Stelae, Marian Goodman Gallery, NYC (2016); Julie Mehretu: The Mathematics of Droves, White Cube, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Julie Mehretu: Half a Shadow, carlier | gebauer, Berlin; Liminal Squared, Marian Goodman Gallery, NYC (2013), White Cube, London (2013); Julie Mehretu: Gray Area, German Guggenheim, Berlin & Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2009). She has also participated in collective installations like The Forever Now; Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World, MoMA, New York, NY (2015); Sharjah Biennial 12, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2015); The International Biennial of the Contemporary Art Foundation of Cartagena, Cartagena, Colombia (2014);
5th Moscow Biennale, Moscow, Russia (2013); Documenta (13), Kassel, Germany (2012). Her work has been honoured with such awards as the MacArthur Award (2005), the Berlin Prize: Guna S. Mundheim Fellowship at The American Academy in Berlin (2007) and the US Department of State Medal of Arts Award (2015).
