Michael Armitage: Paradise Edict brings together recent paintings by the Kenyan-born, London-based artist alongside a selection of works by six East African contemporary artists. Many of Armitage’s figurative paintings draw on contemporary events, combining Western painterly influences with explorations of African culture and folklore. They are made using Lubugo bark cloth, a culturally important material made of tree bark by the Baganda people in Uganda.
We developed a quiet and delicate approach to the exhibition design. The contemporary and legible nature of the interpretation texts and captions, set in the typeface McQueen Grotesk, is offset by the use of prominent paragraph indentation and the subtly exaggerated details of certain letterforms. The colour palette of muted purple and deep grey are taken from the richer tones within Armitage’s paintings, chosen to subtly complement each other across the exhibition graphics and printed gallery guide.
The material is taken from the tree in a way that allows it to regrow and be re-harvested. Stripped off, burned, cleaned and beaten to form a cloth, Armitage’s canvases contain unique holes, textures and stitching.
Photography: Thomas Adank
