Julie Mehretu - They departed for their own country another way (a 9x9x9 hauntology)

A catalogue on Julie Mehretu, featuring new series of paintings, is published to mark the artist's major solo exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey (September - November 2023). Illustrating three bodies of work in abundant detail, including new illustrations of the artist's 'TRANSpaintings' (2023-24), this publication provides an in-depth record of Mehretu's enigmatic and multi-layered works. Designed by Ben Weaver Studio, the catalogue reflects the sculptural proportions and optical complexity of the artist's paintings. A sequence of black-and-white photography, comprising documentary records of recent political events as well as studio photography of work in progress, provides a view of the diverse source material that guides the compositions' incipient stages. An essay by Susannah Hyman reads the exhibited works alongside the artist's gestural abstraction and engagement with revolutionary histories, providing a commentary on spatial politics and identity. Emphasising Mehretu's cross-disciplinary collaboration, the publication features a companion text by musician and founder of Floating Points, Sam Shepherd. Tracing the inflections that make-up Mehretu's expressive paintings within a paradigm of musicality, Shepherd's intimate and contemplative response muses on the artist's generative traversing of creative disciplines.