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Julie Mehretu | Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Fourth Seal (R 6:7), 2020

In four chromatic large-scale prints Julie Mehretu combines photogravure with classic intaglio printing techniques. The base layers are distorted news images from recent anti-immigration protests. Blurred beyond recognition, these images merge with the complex compositions of agitated gestures and erasures which Mehretu executed on copper plates in a variety of printing techniques.

Julie Mehretu creates works that are direct responses to urgent political matters such as war, colonialism, diaspora, displacement, and social protest. She combines manipulated digital images with her distinct painterly vocabulary of organic, painterly marks, geometric shapes and lines. Her multi-layered, large-scale compositions can be seen as visual representations of the humankind’s struggle to comprehend the social and political complexities of a globalized, chaotic, fragmented world.

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