The Last Dinosaur

By Ocean Vuong

When they ask me what it’s like, I tell them

imagine being born in a hospice

in flames. As my relatives melted, I stood

on one leg, raised my arms, shut my eyes & thought:

tree tree tree as death passed me – untouched.

I didn’t know god saw in us a failed

attempt at heaven. Didn’t know my eyes had three

shades of white but only one image

of my mother. She’s standing under an ancient

redwood, sad that her time on earth is all

she owns. O human, I’m not mad at you for winning

but that you never wished for more. Emperor

of language, why didn’t you master No

without forgetting Maybe? Sure, we can

make out if you want, but I’m warning you –

it’s a lot. Sometimes I think gravity

was like: To be brutally honest… & then

never stopped talking. I guess what I mean

is that I ate the apple not because the man lied

when he said I was born of his rib

but that I wanted to fill myself with its hunger

for the ground, where the bones of my people

still dream of me. I bet the light on this page

isn’t invented yet. I bet you never guessed

that my ass was once a small-town

wonder. That the triceratops went nuts

when I danced. How once, after weeks

of drought, I walked through my brother’s laughter

just to feel the rain. O wind-broke wanderer, widow of hope

& ha-has. O sister, dropped seed – help me –

I was made to die but I’m here to stay.

Ocean Vuong, “The Last Dinosaur,” from Time Is a Mother (Penguin Press, 2022).

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Navigating between narratives inspired by reality and dreamlike visions, the work of Michael Armitage (b. 1984, Nairobi, Kenya) addresses issues of our time, including sociopolitical tensions, violence, alluring ideologies, and the global migration crisis. His paintings open with sensitivity and critical acuity to a broader reflection on identity, memory, and the meaning of humanity.

Currently on view at Palazzo Grassi in Venice, Italy, The Promise of Change presents a selection of forty-five paintings, including newly created pieces, and over one hundred studies that reveal Armitage’s dense and vibrant pictorial language. Here he stages figures in rich compositions with remarkable chromatic intensity, at the crossroads of several aesthetic canons. The belief that art cannot ignore reality but must instead grapple with it form the backdrop of some of his poignant works: the consequences of war, corruption and instability in equatorial regions, the weight of societal judgment, and abuses of power. Treated with a mix of violence and gentleness, the compositions retain their flamboyance despite their subjects’ harshness. Armitage’s scenes become denser, even blurred, leaving room for thew viewer’s own interpretation, and thus, giving free rein to his visions, creating haunted or even hallucinatory landscapes.

The Promise of Change is on view at Palazzo Grassi from May 29, 2026 - January 10, 2027.