Pathos and the Twilight of the Idle is the title of the British-Kenyan painter Michael Armitage’s first comprehensive solo exhibition in Austria. Armitage’s show at Kunsthaus Bregenz features large-scale paintings and a series of drawings. Michael Armitage gained recognition with paintings whose motifs are influenced by history and current political events. He studies local rituals and political demonstrations, in addition to plant and animal life. A special feature of his paintings is the painting support for which Armitage uses bark cloth. He then sews these pieces together to create the large-format works.

Michael Armitage was born in 1984 in Nairobi. He lives in Nairobi and in Bali. In 2020 he founded the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI) – a non-profit organization dedicated to providing space for art in Nairobi and promoting and supporting contemporary art in East Africa. Armitage has had solo exhibitions at institutions such as MoMA in New York (2019–20), the Norval Foundation in Cape Town (2020), the Haus der Kunst in Munich (2020–21), and the Royal Academy of Arts in London (2021). Michael Armitage’s exhibition at Kunsthaus Bregenz runs until October 29, 2023.

Michael Armitage: Pathos and the Twilight of the Idle. Solo exhibition at Kunsthaus Bregenz. Bregenz (Austria), July 14, 2023.