Kimathi Donkor

Kimathi Donkor (born in 1965) is a contemporary British artist whose large-scale figurative paintings are "genuine cornucopias of interwoven reference: to Western art, social and political events, and to the artist's own biography".^[1]

Early life and education

Donkor was born in Bournemouth, England in 1965.^[2] He received his BA in fine art from Goldsmiths College, London and a master's degree in fine art at Camberwell College of Arts.^[3]

Career and works

Donkor’s 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.^[4] 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.^[5]

The ‘Queens of the Undead’ paintings depict historic female commanders from Africa^[6] and the African Diaspora,^[7] but with contemporary Londoners as models.^[8] 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.^[2] In 2011, Donkor received the Derek Hill Foundation Scholarship for the British School at Rome.

Caroline Menezes has suggested that Donkor’s work, “articulates a hidden history, tales of the past and chronicles of suppressed voices”,^[9] with figures such as Nanny of the Maroons, Nzinga Mbande, Stephen Lawrence, Joy Gardner, Toussaint L'Ouverture^[10] and Jean Charles de Menezes among the subjects addressed.^[11] 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”.^[3]

Curating and art education

In 2008, Donkor was commissioned to curate the touring group show Hawkins & Co at Liverpool's Contemporary Urban Centre,^[12] 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.^[13] 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.^[14]

Selected solo exhibitions

• 2013 Daddy, I want to be a black artist, Peckham Space, London
• 2012 Queens of the Undead, InIVA, London
• 2008 Hawkins & Co, Market Theatre Gallery, Armagh, N. Ireland
• 2005 Fall/Uprising, Bettie Morton Gallery, London
• 2005 Caribbean Passion: Haiti 1804, Art Exchange Gallery (touring), Nottingham
• 2004 Caribbean Passion: Haiti 1804, Bettie Morton Gallery, London

Selected group exhibitions

• 2013 Entre Trânsitos e Viagens, Carpintaria São Lazaro, Lisbon, Portugal
• 2013 What's Going On The Usher Gallery, Lincoln, UK
• 2012 Invisible Forces, Furtherfield, London
• 2011 Seven things to do in an Emergency, The British School at Rome, Rome, Italy
• 2010 29th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
• 2008 Hawkins & Co, Contemporary Urban Centre, Liverpool, UK
• 2004 Historicism, 198 Contemporary Art & Learning, London
• 1985 Young, Black & Here, People's Gallery, London
• 1985 Artists Against Apartheid, Royal Festival Hall, London

Notes

External links

• Official website