Christine Mehring works on modern and contemporary art. Her research, writing, and teaching focus on abstraction, particularly the ways in which non-mimetic forms, colors, and non-traditional materials come to signify in relation to specific historical contexts; postwar European art, especially the impact of World War II and the transformation from an international art world to a global one; the cross-overs between art and design, including interior and furniture design, wall-painting, the traditionally feminine applied arts like weaving and embroidery, and public art; and photography and the relations between old and new media, including their convergences with histories and practices of abstract art.

She recently co-curated the University’s commission of Jenny Holzer’s YOU BE MY ALLY, a text-based public artwork projecting academic discourse into the public sphere by means of an AR app and LED trucks. Some years ago, she directed the project “Material Matters,” which included the research, material investigation, and conservation of Fluxus artist Wolf Vostell’s Concrete Traffic (1970) and the university-wide year-long program "Concrete Happenings." Mehring is now at work with Lisa Zaher on an edited volume concerning Vostell’s use of concrete and the conservation of Concrete Traffic.

For more details on her research and publications, please visit her profile page at the University of Chicago.