Kenyan British artist Michael Armitage was born in Nairobi, a city he continues to draw upon for inspiration. Despite being sent to an English boarding school and continuing his education in London, Armitage seeks ways to “relocate his work out of the Western canon […] and re-introduce his East African cultural history.” One way he accomplishes this is by foregoing traditional canvases, instead choosing to paint on stretched lubugo, a Ugandan material made from ficus tree bark that is traditionally used for death shrouds. His paintings are vibrant, the surfaces often textured with perforations and punctures that he integrates into the composition. Armitage’s works explore the social and political realities of life in Africa through depictions of recent events, mythology, and his own memories of life in Kenya with the occasional nod to historical artists like Francisco Goya and stylistic call-backs to Fauvism.

–Carly Davis