Projects 110: Michael Armitage

The scenes in The Promised Land and The promise of change were inspired by political rallies held before the 2017 general elections in Kenya. While both works depict these collective gatherings at the height of preelection fervor, The Promised Land places the viewer within the crowd, while The promise of change bears witness from on the stage.

In Nyali Beach Boys (2015), the artist puts forth a proposition that pushes back against the gendered “male gaze” that stretches across art history in works such as Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) and Édouard Manet’s Olympia (1865). The painting shows male Kenyan sex workers, known to locals as “beach boys” for their combing of East African beaches for affluent, European female tourists.

Across his compositions, Armitage oscillates between real and surreal, celebratory, and sinister. He merges memories of Kenya with media depictions of East Africa, a consciousness traversing lines of sociopolitical unrest. In these works, the artist considers how political reportage, African bodies, and the body politic are traded as capital, highlighting the fraught relationship between Africa and the West on a global stage.

Projects 110: Michael Armitage is organized by Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator, with Legacy Russell, Associate Curator, Exhibitions. The exhibition will be on starting October 21, 2019, through January 20, 2020, at The Museum of Modern Art as part of a multiyear partnership between The Studio Museum in Harlem, MoMA, and MoMA PS1. Building on the institutions’ existing affiliations and shared values, this wide-ranging collaboration encompasses exhibitions and programming at both The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 and takes place during the construction of the Studio Museum’s new facility.