Julie Mehretu Quotes

I don't ever work in a way where something is an illustration of an event, but when something is occurring at the same time I see it as very informed by that.

- Julie Mehretu

Race always comes up in the conversation of Detroit.

- Julie Mehretu

That's what I'm interested in: the space in between, the moment of imagining what is possible and yet not knowing what that is.

- Julie Mehretu

I'm really interested in the nondefinitive element of abstraction.

- Julie Mehretu

People look at film in a gallery, and if they walk out after two minutes they know they haven't seen the whole work. But then people look at a painting for two minutes and think they've seen it. Certain paintings are made to be consumed fast. But some require a slowed-down time. You have to go back to them.

- Julie Mehretu

When you're not a mom, you can get up in the middle of the night, paint, sleep all morning... you can't do that when you have two children!

- Julie Mehretu

You're not just this person who's from your own specific experiences, but the collective experience of what makes you who you are because of time.

- Julie Mehretu