“The narratives come together to create this overall picture that you see from a distance,” says the painter Julie Mehretu, describing her work. “As you come close to it … the big picture completely shatters, and there are these numerous small narratives happening.” Mehretu alludes to many different subjects in these small narratives—art history, geography, sociopolitical drifts, her private life. In Sydney, this career-spanning retrospective includes more than 80 paintings and works on paper. —Elena Clavarino