Berkeleyan

Tough merge

21 April 2004

Currently on view through June 27 in the Berkeley Art Museum’s Matrix Gallery are drawings and large-scale paintings by New York-based artist Julie Mehretu, including Immanence (2003; ink and acrylic on canvas; 71 x 102 in.), at right. Born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and educated in Senegal and the United States, Mehretu has received substantial critical acclaim for her work. Painting on vellum and Mylar, Mehretu merges and layers her own vocabulary of marks with systems of motion (such as flight patterns and highway and subway grids) to create works that reflect her interest in picturing and mapping human relationships and interactions within the constructed world.