Michael Armitage was born in Nairobi and lives and works there and in London. Kenya and East Africa are the central subjects of his paintings. Working in oil on Lubugo, a traditional bark cloth from Uganda, Armitage paints political and cultural life, urban and natural landscapes, and the wild mélange of wildlife, history, mythology, internet gossip and pop culture dance crazes that define those places. His colors and imagery are dreamlike, but the work touches on Kenya’s sometimes harsh reality: its social unrest and extreme disparities in wealth. Illuminating the life and spirit of his place of birth is his goal, and he’s said, “Painting is a way of thinking through something, trying to understand an experience or an event a little better, and trying to communicate something of the problem to others.”
Since receiving his BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 2007 and a postgraduate diploma from the Royal Academy in 2010, Armitage has had an exciting decade. He’s had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, the South London Gallery, the Turner Contemporary in Margate (UK), the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in California, and a project room at MoMA in collaboration with the Studio Museum in Harlem. He’s also been featured in major group exhibitions around the world, including the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019, Prospect.4 in New Orleans in 2017, and the 13th Biennale de Lyon in France in 2015, to name only a few.