Julie Mehretu: City Sitings inaugurates the central special exhibition galleries, located just to the south of Rivera Court. Mehretu, born in Ethiopia and raised and educated in Michigan and Rhode Island, has been described as a truly global artist, whose large, abstract paintings explore the often unwieldy issues of mobility, social organization, political entanglement, and global competition.

Most cities are built, dismantled, and rebuilt over time, yielding structures and spaces that reflect ongoing urban change. Mehretu’s paintings follow a similar course as she layers and, in her most recent works, erases information from her compositions, showing how each new level becomes a foundation for new iterations, stories, and identities. Embedded in her abstract images, are elements taken from architectural blue prints, maps, sports arenas, and commercial logos.

Five of the paintings in City Sitings were completed specifically for the exhibition. These new works demonstrate her fervent preoccupation with multiple, often conflicting, viewpoints.