Julie Mehretu (b. 1970)

“I am also interested in what Kandinsky referred to in ‘The Great Utopia’ when he talked about the inevitable implosion and/or explosion of our constructed spaces out of the sheer necessity of agency ... it is in these same spaces that you can feel the undercurrents of complete chaos, violence, and disorder.” (J. Mehretu, quoted in “Looking Back: Email Interview Between Julie Mehretu and Olukemi Ilesanmi, April 2003”, in Julie Mehretu: Drawing into Painting , exh. cat., Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2003, pp. 13-14).