Excavations: The Prints of Julie Mehretu

The paintings, drawings, and prints of Julie Mehretu are fantastical topographies – surfaces layered with veils of intricate imagery that reveal palpable tension between figuration and abstraction. Her works address ideas of interconnected modern civilizations with fragments from maps, city grids, weather charts, and even NFL diagrams. This exhibition showcased Mehretu’s decade-long engagement with printmaking, where the discipline of printing (and thinking) in multiple layers informs her work in all media.

An adjacent display of additional paintings and drawings by Mehretu was also on view. The exhibition was organized by the Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis, where Mehretu created several of her prints. Its accompanying catalogue included an essay by Siri Engberg, guest curator of the exhibition and curator at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. There are works that appeared in this exhibition that were loans to the Loeb and therefore do not appear on this website.