Enjoy this exhibition of new work by Kenyan British artist Michael Armitage at David Zwirner Gallery New York. This is Armitage’s first solo show with the gallery since the announcement of his representation in 2022 and his first solo presentation in New York since Projects 110: Michael Armitage, organized by The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, and held at The Museum of Modern Art in 2019.

The exhibition includes new paintings and bronze reliefs by the artist. 
 
In Crucible, Armitage reflects on the theme of migration. Painted on Lubugo bark cloth—a traditional Ugandan textile used in funerary rituals, which the artist has used as a support for more than a decade—these works are marked by a visceral directness that implicates the viewer in the migrant’s journey and the representation of migrants in wider society.

The works in the exhibition incorporate elements of real-life imagery to present narratives that are imbued with a profound sense of humanity and pathos. 
 
While some of the paintings evoke vignettes from a migration route that traverses the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe, other works consider aspects of migration in a broader sense.

About the Artist

The paintings and drawings of Kenyan British artist Michael Armitage (b. 1984) give shape to real and imagined histories, constructing nuanced, deeply rooted impressions of the myriad sociopolitical and cultural contexts that affect contemporary daily life in the region.

Executed in a distinctive lush palette, these sweeping compositions vividly combine visual references to recent events, the art-historical canon, and the artist’s own memories and milieu, while also generating space for the spiritual and the symbolic.

Using painting to excavate, process, and reappraise these sources, Armitage’s practice subtly collapses traditional formal considerations, resulting in lyrical tableaux that thrive on the enigmatic slippage of motif and meaning.

Armitage was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and currently lives and works in Nairobi and London. He received his BFA from Slade School of Art, London, in 2007, and a Postgraduate diploma from the Royal Academy Schools, London, in 2010.

The artist was the recipient of the Ruth Baumgarte Art Award in 2020, and in 2021, he was elected a Royal Academician of Painting by the Royal Academy of Art, London. The artist’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at prominent institutions worldwide. 

Michael Armitage // Crucible // David Zwirner Gallery // New York, USA // Through 26 June 2025

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