Kimathi Donkor
Kimathi Donkor (b.Bournemouth, UK, 1965) makes work that re-imagines mythic, legendary and domestic encounters across Africa and its global diasporas. He primarily works in painting and addresses both the way western canonical art has erased black subjectivity as well as the way western history has written out black historical figures such as Toussaint L'Ouverture and Harriet Tubman.
Donkor became aware of these figures whilst studying at Goldsmiths University in the 1980s in part because of his own family connections to Jamaican, Nigeria and Ghana. He became particularly interested in the way that the British education system at the time refused (and arguably still refuses) to give these figures their historical dues, or talk about the roles of colonialism, slavery, oppression and empire that is central to British history.
Donkor subsequently became involved in a number of community initiatives in Brixton, the main site of the uprisings by the Black British community against state and police injustices in the 1980s. This experience of working in the community fed into a number of later works that focused on police brutality against members of the Black British community such as Cynthia Jarrett and Cherry Groce. Donkor also developed a number of paintings that retrieved black historical figures. In all these works Donkor references and plays with the style of western canonical history paintings, in order to re-insert the erased black figure back into one the most recognisable canonical visual idioms. These works can be seen as not simply retrieving black historical figures, or remembering black victims of police and societal brutality but also an act of actively differencing the art historical canon.
In recent years Donkor’s work has been exhibition in group exhibitions such as ‘Thinking Historically in the Present’, Sharjah Biennial 15 (Sharjah, 2023); ‘War Inna Babylon: The Community's Struggle for Truth and Rights', ICA (London, 2021); ’'Untitled: Art on the Conditions of Our Time', Kettle's Yard (Cambridge, 2021) and New Art Exchange (Nottingham, 2017), Diaspora Pavilion: Venice to Wolverhampton, 57th Venice Biennale (Venice, 2017) and 29th Sao Paulo Biennial (Brazil, 2010).
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The Art Newspaper: Kimathi Donkor's presentation at Sharjah Biennial 15 reviewed
Nadine Khalil, The Art Newspaper, February 20, 2023 -
More than 100 sculptures on slave trade to be unveiled across seven UK cities
Gareth Harris, The Art Newspaper, June 27, 2022 -
How Venice’s National Pavilions Complicate the Notion of Citizenship
Jennifer Higgie, Frieze, March 23, 2022 -
Why Black art matters
Richard Holledge, The New European, September 16, 2021 -
Charting Black Resistance in the UK Since the 1940s
Aurella Yussuf, Hyperallergic, September 7, 2021 -
ICA's War Inna Babylon is the Race Report the UK Needs
Stephanie Bailey, Ocula, August 20, 2021 -
War Inna Babylon at the ICA review: this portrait of black resistance to racism is urgent and devastating
Ben Luke, Evening Standard, August 4, 2021 -
Black artists take Britain’s pulse – and pose as Grace Jones: Untitled at Kettle’s Yard review
Kadish Morris, The Guardian, July 14, 2021 -
Kimathi Donkor - an exploration of African art
Abena Sεwaa, AKADi Magazine, February 26, 2021
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Kimathi Donkor and Black Blossoms Online
'On Episode Seven' featured on Holland Park billboard January 18, 2023Kimathi Donkor will intermittently appear on the Holland Park Billboard throughout 2023. Kimathi Donkor’s art re-imagines mythic, historical and everyday encounters across Africa and its...Read more -
The New African Portraiture | Shariat Collections
Curated by Ekow Eshun November 25, 2022The group exhibition The New African Portraiture. Shariat Collectionsbrings together leading figures from a generation of thrilling figurative artists of African origin. The more than...Read more -
Sharjah Biennale 15
'Thinking Historically in the Present' May 6, 2022Kimathi Donkor will present a solo exhibition at Sharjah Biennale 15 as part of the exhibition ‘Thinking Historically in the Present’ .Read more -
'idyls' at DKUK
September 27, 2021For his exhibition at DKUK, Kimathi Donkor presents Idyll: an ongoing series of paintings. The paintings present calm and leisurely everyday scenes that are shared...Read more