Kimathi Donkor
- The Miraculous Destiny of James Somerset, 2024
- The Death of Clinton McCurbin, 2023
- To Dance..., 2023
- Maria Firmina dos Reis reads to Henry Tate: Luís Gama, Donald Rodney and Isabel Braganza confer, 2014
- Jean Charles Menenzes borne aloft by Joy Gardner and Stephen Lawrence, 2010
- Portrait of the Artist Helping with Enquiries, 2005
- Under Fire: The Shooting of Cherry Groce, 2005
- Bacchus and Ariadne, 2004
Kimathi Donkor is a British artist based in London who makes work that re-imagines mythic, legendary and domestic encounters across Africa and its global diasporas. Earlier work by Donkor work addresses 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. More recent work looks at how to articulate new forms of resistance through modes such as the Black fantastic and Black joy.
Whilst studying at Goldsmiths University in the 1980s Donkor became aware of the way that the British education system at the time refused (and arguably still refuses) to give Black historical figures their dues, or talk about the roles of colonialism, slavery, oppression and empire that is central to British history. On leaving art school Donkor paused his practice as an artist and instead 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. This experience of working in the community fed into a number of works that Donkor produced when he returned to making art at the start of the 2000s. These 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 such as his series about the Haitian revolution. As in his works around police brutality, Donkor referenced very specific examples 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 explored what the next stage of visual resistance against black oppression might be. His series ‘Idyl’ might be understood through the concept of Black joy and his new series ‘Helix’ might be understood through ideas recently articulated around the Black fantastic.
Donkor’s work has been exhibited in group exhibitions such as ‘The Time is Always Now’, currently showing at Philadelphia Art Museum and previously at National Portrait Gallery London (2024; )’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).
Black Art is too good to be a fad
Kimathi Donkor 'Black History Painting' ReviewedWaldemar Januszczak, The Sunday Times, March 31, 2024Radical reboot of Black presence in art explored in three London shows
Kimathi Donkor featured in The Art NewspaperLouisa Buck, The Art Newspaper, March 14, 2024The powerful paintings reframing black experience
Kimathi Donkor Interviewed by BBCTara Okeke, BBC, February 29, 2024The Best Booths at Independent New York
Angelica Villa, Art News, May 12, 2023The Independent, More Inclusive Than Ever
Martha Schwendener, The New York Times, May 11, 2023Kimathi Donkor in The Art Newspaper
Osman Can Yerebakan, The Art Newspaper, May 10, 2023The Art Newspaper: Kimathi Donkor's presentation at Sharjah Biennial 15 reviewed
Nadine Khalil, The Art Newspaper, February 20, 2023More than 100 sculptures on slave trade to be unveiled across seven UK cities
Gareth Harris, The Art Newspaper, June 27, 2022How Venice’s National Pavilions Complicate the Notion of Citizenship
Jennifer Higgie, Frieze, March 23, 2022Why Black art matters
Richard Holledge, The New European, September 16, 2021Charting Black Resistance in the UK Since the 1940s
Aurella Yussuf, Hyperallergic, September 7, 2021ICA's War Inna Babylon is the Race Report the UK Needs
Stephanie Bailey, Ocula, August 20, 2021War Inna Babylon at the ICA review: this portrait of black resistance to racism is urgent and devastating
Ben Luke, Evening Standard, August 4, 2021Black artists take Britain’s pulse – and pose as Grace Jones: Untitled at Kettle’s Yard review
Kadish Morris, The Guardian, July 14, 2021Kimathi Donkor - an exploration of African art
Abena Sεwaa, AKADi Magazine, February 26, 2021
Kimathi Donkor
Black History Painting15 Mar - 20 Apr 2024In his new exhibition 'Black History Painting' Kimathi Donkor continues his ongoing re-centering of black historical figures who have been ignored by mainstream western history or are victims of police...Read moreKimathi Donkor
Helix / Idyl20 Apr - 20 May 2023The exhibition ‘Helix / Idyl' brings together two series of paintings by Kimathi Donkor, both of which continue his investigations into new forms of resistance from the perspective of a...Read more
Kimathi Donkor at Philadelphia Museum of Art
'The Time Is Always Now: Black Artists Reframe the Black Figure' August 30, 2024November 9, 2024–February 9, 2025 This exhibition features 27 Black and African diasporic contemporary artists who use figurative painting, drawing and sculpture to illuminate and...Read moreKimathi Donkor at the Sharjah Art Foundation
'Drawing Time: Duets' 4 May To 4 August 2024 May 1, 2024Drawing Time is a research project that explores the expansive range and possibilities of drawing as a historical artistic practice. Evolving from a close examination...Read moreSoulscapes | In Conversation
Kimathi Donkor in conversation with Nancy Durrant, Lisa Anderson and Phoebe Boswell March 8, 2024Nancy Durrant, Culture Editor of Evening Standard, Soulscapes Curator Lisa Anderson and artists Kimathi Donkor and Phoebe Boswell in conversation to explore how art can...Read moreKimathi Donkor at National Portrait Gallery, London
'The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure', 22 February to 19 May 2024 January 4, 2024The exhibition, curated by writer Ekow Eshun, showcases the work of contemporary artists from the African diaspora, including Michael Armitage, Lubaina Himid, Kerry James Marshall,...Read moreSharjah Biennial 15
'Thinking Historically in the Present' February 7, 2023Kimathi Donkor will present a solo exhibition at Sharjah Biennial 15 as part of the exhibition ‘Thinking Historically in the Present’ . Conceived by the...Read moreKimathi 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 moreThe 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'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