Armitage, Michael
In his expressive, figurative paintings Michael Armitage draws on multiple sources, including current events, the internet and his upbringing in Kenya. Believing that art can be an agent for social change, he explains that, for him, ‘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’.
Much of Armitage’s work features unsettling scenes from his own life or from Kenya’s recent history – such as the aftermath of a plane crash, or a woman who was attacked for choosing to wear a short skirt in public – depicted in a seemingly incongruous colour-palette. Kariakor (2015), like many of Armitage’s paintings, was painted not on canvas but on Lubugo, a traditional cloth from Uganda which is made by beating, softening and stretching bark.
- Artwork Details: 170 x 150cm
- Edition:
- Material description: Oil on lubugo bark cloth
- Credit line: © the artist.
- Theme: Figurative
- Medium: Painting
- Accession number: ACC3/2015