From art fairs to auction rooms, the Nairobi-born, London-based painter Michael Armitage has garnered a lot of attention lately. Now he’s the star of a new Royal Academy exhibition, which brings together 15 of his large-scale paintings from the past six years.

Among the highlights is The Chicken Thief, one of eight paintings inspired by his own experience at an opposition party rally in Nairobi in 2017. Painted on lubugo bark cloth in Armitage’s distinctive florid palette, it depicts the titular thief fleeing arrest — or perhaps he’s trying to escape from the demonic monkey clawing his back.