Artists at the Institute: Julie Mehretu

Taking advantage of the IFA’s location in one of the world’s leading art centers, the Graduate Student Association invites artists to discuss their work at the Institute.  Begun in 1983, these talks are now funded by a generous gift in memory of late IFA Professor Kirk Varnedoe, who inspired the series. Previous lectures this semester included Agnes Denes and Haim Steinbach.

On May 14, 2013, The Institute welcomes Julie Mehretu. UPDATE: This lecture was originally scheduled for April 23rd.

Julie Mehretu's wall paintings and works on paper overlay architectural plans, diagrams and maps of both the urban and natural environments with abstract forms and personal notations to convey the energy and chaos of today's globalized world. These shards of color and planar forms seem to be suspended between surface and ground, often caught in centrifugal motion around the axis of her compositions, calling attention to the tensions between "movement and stasis, freedom and control, chaos and order, and individual action and collective power." Drawing from her own itinerant biography, Mehretu comments on border-crossing and travel, emphasizing the dynamism of international cities, but also their dangerous militarization of spaces and bodies.

This lecture will be videotaped and made available on the Institute's website.