Julie Mehretu, Warsaw survey closes alongside BMW Art Car show
Published on 08/31/2026 at 12:56 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Julie Mehretu reaches a concentrated exhibition moment at the end of August 2026. As the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw states, her survey Kairos / Hauntological Variations runs from March 20 to August 30, 2026 and marks her first extensive presentation in PolandMuseum of Modern Art in Warsaw exhibition page.
The Warsaw museum survey
The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw presents Kairos / Hauntological Variations as a wide-ranging overview of Mehretu’s paintings and drawings from the late 1990s to recent large-scale works, with the run dated March 20 to August 30, 2026White Cube exhibition announcement.
The museum emphasizes that the show, curated by Szymon ?ydek, introduces her work to Poland for the first time, bringing together loans from the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen and the Pinault Collection to trace the evolution of her layered, cartographic compositions.
BMW Art Car in Munich
In parallel to the Warsaw survey, BMW Welt in Munich stages BMW ART CARS - 20 ARTISTS, 50 YEARS OF INNOVATION. REUNITED AT BMW WELT, which presents all 20 BMW Art Cars together from July 29 to August 31, 2026, including Mehretu’s 2024 BMW M Hybrid V8 projectBMW Group press release.
The BMW Group describes Mehretu’s BMW M Hybrid V8 Art Car as a multidimensional endeavor connected to the African Film and Media Arts Collective, positioning the vehicle as a rolling sculpture that extends her interest in layered spatial structures into automotive design.
All news and background on Julie Mehretu
For further reporting on Julie Mehretu’s exhibitions, commissions and market developments, the AD HOC NEWS archive offers additional context and analysis.
How the artist builds her works
Mehretu works primarily with large-scale abstract painting and drawing, layering architectural plans, maps and media imagery into dense fields of marks that register historical and contemporary turbulence.
Her canvases often combine precise linear structures with gestural sweeps and bursts of color, creating spatial atmospheres that oscillate between diagram and storm while remaining grounded in specific political and urban references.
Where the artist stands now
Julie Mehretu’s work concludes the survey Kairos / Hauntological Variations at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw on August 30, 2026, while her BMW M Hybrid V8 Art Car stays on view at BMW Welt in Munich until August 31, 2026.
Key facts on Julie Mehretu
- Artist: Julie Mehretu
- Medium / Genre: Painting and drawing (abstract, multi-layered)
- Born: 1970, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
- Place(s) of practice: Studio practice between New York and Berlin, with international institutional projects
- Active since: mid-1990s, with early analytical diagram works and first institutional shows from around 1998
- Key work groups: Empirical Construction series, Black City, Mogamma, Our Days, Like a Shadow (a non-abiding hauntology)
- Current/last exhibition: Kairos / Hauntological Variations, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, March 20–August 30, 2026
- Major collections: holdings in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), Tate (London) and the Saint Louis Art Museum
- Awards: Recognition includes the MacArthur Fellowship (2005) and other major U.S. honors, underlining her position in contemporary painting
- Next date: Exhibition end dates within the 30-day window: August 30, 2026 at Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and August 31, 2026 at BMW Welt in Munich
Frequently asked questions about Julie Mehretu
Where is Julie Mehretu’s work on view at the end of August 2026?
Mehretu’s survey Kairos / Hauntological Variations is on view at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw until August 30, 2026, while her BMW M Hybrid V8 Art Car forms part of the Art Cars exhibition at BMW Welt in Munich until August 31, 2026.
What defines the exhibition Kairos / Hauntological Variations in Warsaw?
The Warsaw exhibition brings together works from the late 1990s to today, tracing Mehretu’s evolving practice across painting, drawing and printmaking, and is described by the museum as her first extensive presentation in Poland.
How does Julie Mehretu’s BMW M Hybrid V8 Art Car relate to her broader practice?
BMW characterizes Mehretu’s Art Car as transcending the car as object, extending her layered visual language into automotive form and linking the project with the African Film and Media Arts Collective AFMAC.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
