Kimathi Donkor

Kimathi Donkor (born in 1965) is a London-based contemporary British artist of Ghanaian, Anglo-Jewish and Jamaican family heritage [1] whose figurative paintings depict "African diasporic bodies and souls as sites of heroism and martydom, empowerment and fragility...myth and matter".[2] According to art critic Coline Milliard, Donkor's works are ""genuine cornucopias of interwoven reference: to Western art, social and political events, and to the artist's own biography".[3]

Early life and education

Donkor was born in Bournemouth, England, in 1965.[4] He has said of his background: "I was born in the UK to an Anglo-Jewish mother and Ghanaian father, but was raised by my adopted parents who were from Jamaica and the UK. We lived for a time in Zambia, Central Africa, where my adopted dad worked as a vet. I finished my schooling in the west of England, then moved to London, where I eventually settled. In the meantime, my adopted parents had divorced and remarried, so the family diversity actually increased, as Zambians also joined the party. This smörgåsbord life induced an early sense of the wondrous, and sometimes maddening, complexity of identities and histories, which, I think, has been reflected in my artworks. Precisely because I was such an intimate witness to the multiple crossings and re-crossings of stories, images and journeys from around the world."[5]

Donkor received an Art Foundation Diploma from Bournemouth and Poole College of Arts followed by a BA (Hons) degree in fine art from Goldsmiths College, University of London, and a master's degree in fine art at Camberwell College of Arts.[6][7] He earned his PhD at Chelsea College of Arts in 2016.[8][9] He also participated in community education initiatives such as Black History for Action.[10] In 2011, he was the recipient of the Derek Hill Foundation Scholarship for the British School at Rome.[9]

Career and works

Works by Kimathi Donkor are held by significant UK and international collections, including at the International Slavery Museum,[11] Wolverhampton Art Gallery,[12] the Sindika Dokolo Collection and the British Museum. His history paintings "fearlessly tackle key, dramatic, monumental moments of African diaspora history ... with a painterly preciseness that borders on aesthetic frugality", according to art historian Eddie Chambers.[13] In 2005, Time Out magazine reported that officers from London's Metropolitan Police had entered the Bettie Morton Gallery to demand the removal of one the artist's paintings, Helping With Enquiries (1984), from his solo exhibition Fall/Uprising (which addressed policing controversies). Gallery staff refused to comply and police later issued a statement that "no further action" would be taken against the painter.[14]

The artist's "Queens of the Undead" paintings[15] depict historic female commanders from Africa[16] and the African Diaspora,[17] but with contemporary Londoners as models.[18] Prior to featuring in Donkor's 2012 solo show at London's Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva), some works from the series were exhibited at the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion in São Paulo, Brazil, for the 29th São Paulo Biennial in 2010.[4]

Caroline Menezes suggested that Donkor's work, "articulates a hidden history, tales of the past and chronicles of suppressed voices",[1] with figures such as Nanny of the Maroons, Nzinga Mbande, Stephen Lawrence, Joy Gardner, Toussaint L'Ouverture[19] and Jean Charles de Menezes among the subjects addressed.[20] Writing about his 2013, London solo show, Daddy, I want to be a black artist, Yvette Greslé proposed Donkor as “one of the most significant figurative painters, of his generation, working in the United Kingdom today”.[7] In 2017, works by the artist were featured in the Diaspora Pavilion [21] during the 57th Venice Biennale, and in 2019 he won the DiLonghi Art Projects Artists Award at the London Art Fair.[22]

Curating and art teaching

In 2008, Donkor was commissioned to curate the touring group show Hawkins & Co at Liverpool's Contemporary Urban Centre,[23] featuring 70 works by 15 artists, including Raimi Gbadamosi, Keith Piper, George "Fowokan" Kelly and Chinwe Chukwuogo Roy MBE. The show, which toured to Liverpool from London, marked the bicentenary of Parliament's Act to Abolition the Slave Trade.[24] In 2009, Donkor embarked on a three-year project at Tate Britain, Seeing Through, which engaged a group of young people from London foster homes in producing and exhibiting art at the museum.[25] Dr Donkor is a senior lecturer at the University of the Arts, London and in 2019 was appointed as Course Leader for the BA(Hons) in Painting at Camberwell College of Arts.[26]

Selected solo exhibitions

Selected group exhibitions
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References
  1. Caroline Menezes, "Retelling history through art — and interview with Kimathi Donkor", Studio International, 5 December 2012.
  2. Bernier, Celeste-Marie (2019-01-01). Stick to the Skin: African American and Black British Art, 1965-2015. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520286535.
  3. Coline Milliard, "Kimathi Donkor - 'Queens of the Undead'" (review), Blouinartinfo, 2 November 2012.
  4. Agnaldo Farias; Moacir dos Anjos; Adrian Piper; et al. 29th Bienal de São Paulo catalogue: there is always a cup of sea to sail in. São Paulo: Fundac̦ão Bienal de São Paulo, 2010. ISBN 9788585298333; ISBN 8585298332.
  5. Philip Kaisary, "An interview with Kimathi Donkor", Lacuna Magazine, 18 February 2015.
  6. "CV" (PDF). Kimathi Donkor. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  7. Yvette Greslé, "Kimathi Donkor: ‘Daddy, I want to be a black artist’ @ Peckham Space", FAD, 3 October 2013.
  8. "Kimathi Donkor". ICF International Curators Forum. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  9. "Black art and activism". IRoyal Academy. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  10. Menezes, Caroline. "Retelling history through art – an interview with Kimathi Donkor, Studio International". Studio International - Visual Arts, Design and Architecture. The Studio Trust. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  11. Bernier, Celeste-Marie (2017). "Tracing Transatlantic Slavery: In Kimathi Donkor's UK Diaspora". Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art (41): 108–124. Retrieved 2019-06-26.
  12. "Artwork Madonna Metropolitan: the death of Cynthia Jarrett". Black Artists & Modernism. Retrieved 2019-06-26.
  13. Eddie Chambers (2013): "Reading the Riot Act", Visual Culture in Britain, Volume 14, Issue 2, 2013. DOI:10.1080/14714787.2013.782156.
  14. Rebecca Taylor, "Brixton Gallery raided by Met", Time Out, 9–16 November 2005, p. 16.
  15. "Kimathi Donkor: Queens of the Undead" Archived 2014-02-21 at the Wayback Machine, 12 September – 24 November 2012, iniva.
  16. Lara Pawson,, "Kimathi Donkor - Iniva, London" Archived 2014-02-28 at the Wayback Machine, Frieze Magazine, 19 November 2012.
  17. Lara Pawson, "The black ghosts haunting Downton Abbey", The Guardian, 14 November 2012.
  18. Hazelann Williams, "Resurrecting The Past", The Voice, 29 September 2012.
  19. Derek Turner (2013): "Modernity in a medieval city", Quarterly Review, 17 January 2014.
  20. Annie Ridout, "Queens of the Undead – Black history brought up to date", Hackney Citizen, 1 October 2012.
  21. "Beyond the boundaries: A review of the Diaspora Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale". Culture Matters. Retrieved 2019-06-26.
  22. "Kimathi Donkor wins the De'Longhi Art Projects Artist Award 2019". Art Daily. Retrieved 2019-06-26.
  23. Sandra Gibson (2008): "Hawkins & Co" (review) Archived 2008-05-11 at the Wayback Machine, Nerve.
  24. Untold London Archived 2008-05-14 at the Wayback Machine
  25. "Seeing Through Display: Motion and Material", Tate Britain: Exhibition, 14 July – 6 August 2009.
  26. "Meet Dr Kimathi Donkor, new Course Leader, BA Fine Art Painting at Camberwell". UAL. Retrieved 2019-06-26.

Further reading
  • Anjos, M., & A. Farias, 2010, 29th Bienal Documentation, São Paulo: Fundação de Bienal São Paulo, ISBN 978-85-85298-37-1
  • Anjos, M., & A. Farias, 2010, 29th Bienal Catalogue, São Paulo: Fundação de Bienal São Paulo, ISBN 978-85-85298-33-3
  • Barbrook, R., 2014. Class Wargames: Ludic subversion against spectacular capitalism, Minor Compositions; distributed by Autonomedia (New York), ISBN 978-1-57027-293-6
  • Benci, J., 2012, Fine Arts 2011-2012, British School at Rome (Rome), ISBN 978-0-904152-64-7
  • Bernier, Celeste-Marie, 2019. Stick to the Skin: African American and Black British Art, 1965-2015. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520286535
  • Dibosa, D., et al. 2012, Kimathi Donkor: Queens of the Undead Iniva (London), ISBN 978-1-899846-54-2
  • Chambers, E., 2014, Black Artists in British Art: A History from 1950 to the Present, I.B.Tauris (London and New York), ISBN 978-1-7807-6271-5
  • Kaisary, P., 2014, The Haitian Revolution in the Literary Imagination, London and Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, ISBN 978-0-8139-3546-1
  • Miranda, M., & A. Páscoa, 2014, Offline: Between Transits and Journeys, Lisbon: XEREM Associação Cultural, ISBN 978-989-97183-1-9
  • Miller, M., 2013, Seeing Through, London: Tate Young People's Programmes
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