Julie Mehretu
Shaking from the Dance, 2026
Sheet Size (H x W): 14 1/4” x 13 5/8” (36.2 x 34.6 cm)
Image size: 9 3/8 x 9 3/8”
1-color drypoint and engraving with chine collé
Edition of 35
Signed and numbered
Printed and published by Gemini G.E.L.
Produced for The Center by Lisa Ivorian-Jones
Shaking from the Dance, 2026 is a brand new limited-edition intaglio print with chine collé by Julie Mehretu, generously created by the Artist in support of The NYC LGBT Center and donated by the Artist and publisher Gemini G.E.L. Etched on copper plates and printed over chine collé, the edition comprises 35 signed and numbered prints. Fifteen prints will be available exclusively on the evening of Art Centered at a special pre-production release price of $5,500. For further details or to express interest in advance of the evening, please contact Lisa Ivorian-Jones, Edition Publisher, at lisa@ivorianjones.com or (917) 744-6787.
The print’s title, Shaking from the Dance, takes its cue from the quote “shaking from the dust”, in Isiaiah 52:2, symbolic of a re-birth or a movement from submission to active and joyful participation. In the context of The Center, the title also resonates with the history and vitality of queer experience. One sees an echo of crawling figures in the work, a shaking dance towards liberation. It is an active and vibrant print. One can feel the artist’s hand in each mark, and a visual and energetic tease of the paper’s physical boundary.
About Julie Mehretu
Julie Mehretu, (b. 1970, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) is a world renowned visual artist in contemporary painting, drawing and printmaking. She received a B.A. from Kalamazoo College, Michigan, studied at the University Cheik Anta Diop, Dakar Senegal, and received a Master of Fine Arts with honors from The Rhode Island School of Design in 1997. Mehretu is the recipient of many awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005, the Medal of Arts Award from the US Department of State in 2015, and in 2025, she was awarded the Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. She was named in TIME magazine's 100 most influential people of 2020. In 2024, Mehretu created an 83 x 25 foot glass mural for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, entitled Uprising of the Sun. Mehretu is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Design and the National Academy of Sciences in Ethiopia. She sits on the board of the Whitney Museum of American Art, is a trustee and alumna of the American Academy in Berlin and is co-founder and board member of Denniston Hill artist residency. Mehretu is represented by Marian Goodman Gallery, White Cube and carlier | gebauer.