Michael Armitage - (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A new catalogue of work by Kenyan British artist Michael Armitage showcases his poignant, timely, and profoundly humanistic paintings and sculptures in which migration takes center stage

About the Author

The paintings and drawings of Kenyan British artist Michael Armitage (b. 1984) give shape to real and imagined histories, constructing deeply rooted impressions of the sociopolitical and cultural contexts that affect contemporary daily life in the region. These sweeping compositions combine visual references to recent events, the art-historical canon, the artist's East African artistic milieu, and his own memories, while also generating space for the spiritual and the symbolic.

Marina Warner writes fiction, criticism, and cultural history. Her award-winning books include Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (1976), From the Beast to the Blonde (1994), and Stranger Magic: Charmed States & the Arabian Nights (2011), among others. In 2015, she was awarded the Holberg Prize in the Arts and Humanities. She is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College.

Joshua Jelly-Schapiro is a geographer and writer whose books include Island People (2016), Names of New York (2021), Nonstop Metropolis (2016), and, most recently, Daylight Come: Harry Belafonte and the World He Made (2026). His work appears regularly in The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and The New York Times, among many other publications. Jelly-Schapiro teaches journalism at New York University and is Director of Publishing at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn.

Warsan Shire is a Somali British writer and poet born in Nairobi and raised in London. Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head (2022) is her full-length debut poetry collection. She was awarded the inaugural Brunel International African Poetry Prize and served as the first Young Poet Laureate of London. She is the youngest member of the Royal Society of Literature and is included in the Penguin Modern Poets series. Shire wrote the poetry for the Peabody Award-winning visual album Lemonade (2016) and the Disney film Black Is King (2020) in collaboration with Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. Shire lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children.