From May 10th to October 12th, 2025, K21 at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen hosts Julie Mehretu: KAIROS / Hauntological Variations, the artist’s first major mid-career retrospective in Germany. This landmark exhibition at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen showcases nearly 100 works spanning three decades, including paintings, drawings, monotypes, and time-based media. Organized in partnership with the Pinault Collection, the show highlights the evolving Julie Mehretu oeuvre, shaped by themes of displacement, migration, and political unrest.
Visitors at K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen Düsseldorf will explore early pieces such as Rise of the New Suprematists (2001), where fragmented cityscapes merge with swirling dots—what Julie Mehretu calls “characters”—reflecting historical and political volatility. Mid-career works like Conjured Parts (tongues) (2015) use blurred media images from civil unrest and climate crises as a backdrop for abstract gestures of resistance. Recent paintings, including Desire was our breastplate (2022–23), feature vivid color fields and calligraphic strokes, continuing Mehretu’s dialogue with global events through her distinctive “visual neologisms.”
A highlight of the exhibition is the debut of Julie Mehretu’s extensive image archive, which has informed her creative process since the 1990s. The show includes rarely exhibited Archive Pages (1997), annotated photocopies that expose the foundations of her layered visual language. Alongside monotypes and early drawings, time-based works—such as a music album and video inspired by Mehretu’s art—expand her language into new dimensions.
Born in Addis Ababa and based in New York, Julie Mehretu continues to redefine abstraction. Her K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen Düsseldorf retrospective confirms her role as one of the most vital voices in contemporary painting, transforming visual art into a powerful medium for global history and memory.
Dive into our conversation with Julie Mehretu on abstraction, memory, and the emotional force of painting.