Michael Armitage

Michael Armitage received a BA from the Slade School of Art, London in 2007 then graduated with an MA from The Royal Academy School in London in 2010.
Armitage’s landscape paintings feature large areas of flat colour that dominate his landscapes. The colour acts as both the central motif that holds the paintings together and an immediate barrier within the painting. Using imagery that is derived from a type of tourist painting familiar to East African markets, and heavily referencing East African painters such as George Lilanga and E.S. Tinga Tinga, his landscapes engage with the development of contemporary African art from the market place to the museum. They bring into question the function of art within the rapidly changing cultures of East Africa and the position of the artist within the development of the Identity and Politics of the region.