Kenya-born British artist Michael Armitage is the latest beneficiary of the Government Art Collection’s Robson Orr TenTen Award, it has today been announced. His new work, Ngaben, was unveiled at 10 Downing Street today by arts and heritage minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay.
The Government Art Collection, presented in partnership with Outset Contemporary Art Fund and sponsored by philanthropists Sybil Robson Orr and Matthew Orr, commissions a different artist every year to create a limited-edition print to be displayed in diplomatic buildings internationally. Money raised will go towards purchasing work by new and under-represented British artists. A small number of prints will also be available to purchase through the Outset Contemporary Art Fund.
Michael Armitage
Armitage is the latest artist to be announced as part of the ten-year scheme, which has previously given awards to Hurvin Anderson (2018), Tacita Dean (2019), Yinka Shonibare (2020), Lubaina Himid (2021) and Rachel Whiteread (2022). This year, Sybil Robson Orr and Matthew Orr also plan to support a multi-year school programme that would see the print taken into schools and used as a learning resource.
Armitage’s print, Ngaben, pays tribute to a close friend in Bali who recently died, in an interweaving of the European aesthetic and east African techniques that the artist is known for. The title of this piece refers to Bali’s Hindu cremation ceremony, which puts the burning pyre at the centre of the cycle of life narrative.
‘Culture exists in the most difficult moments of people’s lives, at points at which they grieve and points at which they experience loss; it exists in celebration; it’s a reminder that we’re not here as isolated individuals, we’re here as something greater, and we have a responsibility to each other,’ he says. ‘For me, that’s really what it is to be an artist... It’s a very hard thing to quantify but it’s entirely necessary.’
Matthew Orr, Sybil Robson Orr, Eliza Gluckman, Lord Parkinson at No. 10 Downing Street
Adds Eliza Gluckman, director of Government Art Collection: ‘Since 2018 the innovative model for the Robson Orr TenTen Award has not only seen the creation of six impactful prints by some of the UK’s most celebrated artists, but has also generated funds to support the acquisition of works by 27 artists, adding works by artists such as Sonia Boyce and Barbara Walker [the latter currently featured in the Turner Prize 2023 exhibition] to the Collection. Michael Armitage’s moving print marks the importance of international and intergenerational peer support of artists. This year the impact of the partnership between the Government Art Collection, Outset Contemporary Art Fund and the Robson Orrs will reach hundreds of school children too. We are grateful for the support to continue the Collection’s promotion of British art and the expansion of our public engagement programme.’
-
Finnish Design Shop has unveiled an interiors collection inspired by the modernist art of Helene SchjerfbeckThe collection’s serene colour palettes and refined finishes draw directly from Schjerfbeck’s paintings, translating her Nordic modernist sensitivity into contemporary objects
-
Lose track of time at a retro-futuristic listening bar in MelbourneLB’s Record Bar is a cinematic sanctuary designed for lingering and listening
-
A revived public space in Aberdeen is named Scotland’s building of the yearAberdeen's Union Terrace Gardens by Stallan-Brand Architecture + Design and LDA Design wins the 2025 Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award
-
Each mundane object tells a story at Pace’s tribute to the everydayIn a group exhibition, ‘Monument to the Unimportant’, artists give the seemingly insignificant – from discarded clothes to weeds in cracks – a longer look
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekThis week, the Wallpaper* team had its finger on the pulse of architecture, interiors and fashion – while also scooping the latest on the Radiohead reunion and London’s buzziest pizza
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt’s been a week of escapism: daydreams of Ghana sparked by lively local projects, glimpses of Tokyo on nostalgic film rolls, and a charming foray into the heart of Christmas as the festive season kicks off in earnest
-
Wes Anderson at the Design Museum celebrates an obsessive attention to detail‘Wes Anderson: The Archives’ pays tribute to the American film director’s career – expect props and puppets aplenty in this comprehensive London retrospective
-
Meet Eva Helene Pade, the emerging artist redefining figurative paintingPade’s dreamlike figures in a crowd are currently on show at Thaddaeus Ropac London; she tells us about her need ‘to capture movements especially’
-
David Shrigley is quite literally asking for money for old rope (£1 million, to be precise)The Turner Prize-nominated artist has filled a London gallery with ten tonnes of discarded rope, priced at £1 million, slyly questioning the arbitrariness of artistic value
-
Out of office: The Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekThe rain is falling, the nights are closing in, and it’s still a bit too early to get excited for Christmas, but this week, the Wallpaper* team brought warmth to the gloom with cosy interiors, good books, and a Hebridean dram
-
A former leprosarium with a traumatic past makes a haunting backdrop for Jaime Welsh's photographsIn 'Convalescent,' an exhibition at Ginny on Frederick in London, Jaime Welsh is drawn to the shores of Lake Geneva and the troubled history of Villa Karma
