LONDON.- White Cube is presenting an online exhibition of works on paper by Kenyan-British artist Michael Armitage (b. 1984, Kenya).
The months that Armitage spends at home in Kenya each year are a time to replenish his fund of imagery and gather inspiration. In fluid ink sketches, he paints scenes from life and memory, as well as images found in the media and online. His subjects are broad, from the expansive Kenyan landscape and its wildlife, to life on the streets in urban East Africa.
The title of the exhibition, ‘Another’s Tongue’, acknowledges the variety of voices that Armitage weaves into his vivid character sketches, ranging from street performers, prophets and musicians, to costumed crowds at Kenyan election rallies, and the illegal brewers in Nairobi’s slums.
‘As with Walter Sickert’s quote, ‘a page torn from the book of life’, I would like all of the works to be different, but also unified. Different in the sense that every day is different, different in that experiences are always different, I’d like the work to reflect that sort of change and the way a mind changes, the way an attitude shifts’.
– Michael Armitage 2020
Alongside the exhibition, White Cube and Armitage have launched the fundraising edition Dream and Refuge (2020), a seven colour lithograph created at The Curwen Studio in London.
All proceeds from the sale of this edition of 250, priced at GBP 3,000 each plus applicable taxes, will be donated to the non-profit organisation Gasworks/Triangle Network to benefit three charities: Beyond Zero, Ghetto Classics and The Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI).
On 3 September 2020, Armitage opens a solo exhibition at the Haus der Kunst, Munich (until 14 February 2021) which includes a collaborative project with the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute, a non-profit foundation he is developing with the Director, Ayako Bertolli. While in Germany, he will also be awarded the 6th Ruth Baumgarte Art Award.
Michael Armitage was born in 1984 in Nairobi, Kenya. He works between Nairobi and London where from 2003 until 2010 he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Royal Academy Schools. Within the last year, Armitage has participated in the 58th Venice Biennale and had solo exhibitions at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney; Museum of Modern Art, New York in collaboration with the Studio Museum Harlem; and the Norval Foundation, Cape Town.
