EAST LANSING, MI.- The Department of Art & Art History at Michigan State University announced the visit of world-renowned artist Julie Mehretu. Mehretu will discuss her work in a public lecture on Tuesday, February, 5 at 7:00 p.m. in room 118 of the Psychology Building. Ethiopian-American artist Julie Mehretu spent much of her childhood in East Lansing where her father is on the MSU faculty. Her work has been featured internationally including at the Whitney Biennial and Carnegie International and is currently on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship (2005) and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. Mehretu has been described as a truly global artist whose large, abstract paintings explore issues of mobility, social organization, political entanglement, and global competition. The vocabularies of maps, urban planning, and architectural forms join together in her densely layered paintings and drawings. In addition to the lecture, Mehretu’s work will be on view from in Julie Mehretu – New Drawings at the Kresge Art Museum from February 1 – March 16, 2008. Both the lecture and exhibition are free and the public is encouraged to attend. Those seeking a more intimate look into Mehretu’s artistic process may be interested in attending a studio tour presented as a fundraiser by The Friends of Kresge Art Museum on Thursday, February 7 – 5:30 pm on Grand River Avenue in Okemos, MI.