Julie Mehretu embodies the complexity and interconnectivity of the contemporary world with her arresting abstract vocabulary. The artist’s dynamic compositions of long, arcing lines and compact, energetic marks might suggest the spectacle of ambitious architectural structures, as well as a visualization of the informational and technological networks that define today’s culture. In Auguries, the dense and shifting forms further convey the crescendos of a musical orchestration or the naturally choreographed movement of flocks of birds. The latter could explain the reference to auguries, or signs of the future, of the work’s title. In some traditions, the appearance and activities of birds were interpreted as omens. The frenetic and ambiguous sense of space in Mehretu’s print also evokes a system either on the verge of collapse or formation—a condition ripe with provocative implications if applied to such aspects of the early 21st century as the global economy, climate change and environmental sustainability, and international political and military affairs.