In the run-up to the 2017 Presidential Elections in Kenya, Michael Armitage attended a major rally by the opposition party in the capital, Nairobi, in part to better understand the relationship between political leaders and their citizens.
The intense and unexpected experiences led to about 18 months of election series paintings exploring what he saw. The body of work includes The Promise of Change (2018), which is featured in a major survey of Armitage’s work at the Palazzo Grazzi in Venice, titled the same.
'I think I was drawn to the title because it’s open ended. And at that time, it kind of felt very apt for particularly with an opposition [party] that it’s the promise of change that you’re getting with them,' the Kenyan-British artist tells Wallpaper*. 'And then obviously that can work both ways that maybe it’s a promise unfulfilled and as well as the potential for things to get better. That ultimately, it’s also an optimistic idea that with change and reflection, things can improve but it is a promise as opposed to a guarantee.'
Michael Armitage, Don’t Worry There Will Be More, 2024. Pinault Collection
Curated by Jean-Marie Gallais, a curator at the Pinault Collection, the exhibition features 45 paintings by the artist made over a decade. The work on view explores themes such as socio-political issues, violence, identity, migration, and memory, often focusing on Kenya and, at times, the world.
'The idea was to have the show kind of unfold like a journey in a way. Starting with figures rooted in real-life stories and day-to-day narratives. Either real people or situations that I have seen first-hand like ‘necklacing’ [extrajudicial torture and or murder] to reflections on migration and the migration route through the Mediterranean to exploring ideas of politics. And the idea was to then progress through myths to landscapes and kind of broader reflections on experience, life and ideas around that,' shares Armitage.
In addition to the Palazzo Grassi show, Armitage’s work has been seen around the world, including at the Venice Biennale, Cape Town’s Norval Foundation, South London Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It is also in collections such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the Kunstmuseum Basel, the National Galleries of Scotland, Pinault Collection in Paris and the Tate in the United Kingdom.
Michael Armitage, Dandora (Xala, Musicians), 2022. Pinault Collection
Armitage was born in 1984 in Nairobi to a Kenyan mother and an English father, and was exposed to art from Kenya and East Africa growing up in the city. The artist attended the Slade School of Fine Art and the Royal Academy Schools, and in 2021 was elected a Royal Academician of Painting by the Royal Academy of Art, all in London.
As his election paintings show, the artist draws from a range of sources, including contemporary events and cinema, for his large-scale oil paintings on Lubugo bark cloth, made from tree bark by the Buganda people in Uganda, which he first encountered in a Nairobi tourist market, sold as a souvenir in 2012.
Deciding to create an artwork can sometimes take on a life of its own and/or take a little while, Armitage discloses. For the Kenya election series, he initially wanted to create a single artwork exploring the relationship between politicians and citizens. Thereafter, he decided to experience that relationship firsthand by attending political rallies.
'I saw very different things being on the ground. How I had seen and reflected on it when not part of it changed what I was doing,' reminisces Armitage. Those experiences transformed his initial thinking from just one painting to a body of work.
Michael Armitage, Untitled, 2024. Pinault Collection
An idea becoming a painting can even take over a decade. At about 12 years old, the artist saw a man who had been stripped naked and a car tyre hanging around his neck, while trying to escape from a mob who were after him. To a very young Armitage, the scene looked funny because of his understanding at the time. Years later, an older Armitage realised that the mob were trying to hurt or kill the individual who was likely a thief. He explored the issue later in Necklacing (2016).
And, about a decade ago, the artist heard the song ‘Lampedusa’ by artists Toumani and Sidiki Diabate about the 2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreck in which more than a dozen people lost their lives trying to journey to Europe, inspiring him for the first time to want to paint about the issue, which didn’t turn out so well. Years later, while in the United Kingdom amid the escalation of hateful rhetoric and policies against refugees and migrants, Armitage felt he was ready and decided to explore the issue through his work, including Don’t Worry There Will Be More (2024), which depicts two people carrying a weary-looking individual.
Michael Armitage, Cave, 2021. Pinault Collection
'We carry around these things in our pocket. [We] can open up our phones and see images which is how the paintings were made,' says Armitage. 'These are images and stories that we carry around with us whether or not we know it. And that we choose to or not to look at them is a form of implication. I felt like that was an approach that I could personally take towards this story. Not one of trying to speak for somebody else but try to speak to something.'
The Promise of Change is on view at Palazzo Grassi until 10 January 2027