Julie Mehretu’s monumental canvases often contain monumental themes—capitalism, war, colonialism, diaspora, geopolitics, climate change, and revolution—and often all at once. Declared one of the greatest artists of her generation and one who helped reinvent abstraction for the 21st century, the Ethiopian-born abstract painter now enjoys a sweeping mid-career survey that presents the most thorough overview to date of her decades-long practice. More than 30 paintings and 40 works on paper spotlight her innovative abstraction technique, in which she overlays wire-frame architectural drawings multiple times across the canvas to collapse one-point Renaissance perspectives. These clash with chaotic, smudged hand-drawn lines made with watery black calligraphy ink. Liberated from any sort of confines, her canvases are marked by a tremulous psychodrama that beckons viewers to spend long, intimate moments relishing in their many layers. 

Julie Mehretu, Stadia II, 2004.