Kimathi Donkor was born in Bournemouth, England to an Anglo-Jewish mother and Ghanaian father, in 1965, but was brought up by his adopted parents who were from Jamaica and the UK. He studied Fine Art at Camberwell College of Arts and Goldsmiths College, before earning his PhD at Chelsea College of Arts in 2016. Appointed Course Leader for BA Painting at Camberwell College of Arts (2019) and Reader in Contemporary Painting and Black Art at the University of the Arts London (UAL, 2022). Donkor's teaching aims to challenge biases by prioritising art and writing from underrepresented social groups, including black, female, queer, Native American, and Asian artists and thinkers. His artistic practice explores mythic and legendary encounters across Africa and its global diasporas.
Painter and academic Kimathi Donkor was born in Bournemouth, England, in 1965 to an Anglo-Jewish mother and Ghanaian father, but was brought up by adopted parents from Jamaica and the UK. As a child he lived in rural Zambia and the English West Country. He studied for a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College (1990) and an MA in Fine Art at Camberwell College of Arts (2010), later taking a PhD at Chelsea College of Arts with his thesis, Africana Unmasked: Fugitive Signs of Africa in Tate's British Collection (2016). His research re-evaluated the interpretation of art within institutional and educational contexts, exposing how perspectives which have dominated the discourse have been limited to a small social group – primarily male, middle-class, heterosexual, and white theorists and practitioners. According to Donkor, this social bias has resulted in the disregard or dismissal of significant issues surrounding aesthetics, identity, and interpretation. Donkor was subsequently awarded a Post-Doctoral Research fellowship at the TrAIN Research Centre at Chelsea. He was appointed as Course Leader for BA Painting at Camberwell (2019) and Reader in Contemporary Painting and Black Art at the University of the Arts London (2022). Donkor's teaching aims to challenge current biases by prioritising art and writing from underrepresented social groups, including black, female, queer, Native American, and Asian artists and thinkers. This approach does not intend to exclude other contributors, but instead seeks to re-contextualise and de-centre dominant perspectives and interests through critical thinkers and practitioners from social groups that have traditionally been marginalised by the Western art world.
Donkor's artistic practice aligns with his educational interests by exploring mythic and legendary encounters across Africa and its global diasporas. He primarily works in painting, but also utilises other mediums such as drawing, video, assemblage, collage, digital design, performance, and installation. His artwork is not limited to depicting a particular time or place, but instead seeks to offer a multidimensional perspective on the diverse experiences of Black people throughout history and in the present day. His paintings explore a wide range of themes, invoking historic figures such as the leader of the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint Louverture (1743-1803), and the American abolitionist, Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), as well as addressing contemporary issues such as urban political dissent or the pursuit of leisure, beauty, and knowledge. Donkor often incorporates the biographies of influential female figures from Africa and its diaspora into vibrant and imaginary landscapes, giving these women ‘a new chance for liberation’ (Menezes 2013). Donkor first encountered these historical figures during his time at Goldsmiths in the 1980s, when he observed that although Britain had established long-standing connections with many of their countries of origin, its education and art systems were silent on the subject. Finding this frustrating, he decided to join various community initiatives in Brixton, close to where Goldsmiths was located, to expand his knowledge beyond the college curriculum. As a result, he established, with other students, the self-funded Black History for Action group, which aimed to address lack of education about Black history. During the group's meetings, members researched and presented the biographies of notable Black figures, as well as discussing cultural, political, and historical topics.
In 2005, Donkor held the exhibition Fall/Uprising at the Bettie Morton Gallery, which was, at that time, the only black-owned contemporary art space in Britain. The exhibition featured a collection of paintings created to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1985 Brixton riots, which focused on the police shooting of Cherry Groce and the deaths of Cynthia Jarrett and Keith Blakelock. Donkor’s solo show Queens of the Undead at Iniva, London (2012), comprised paintings in which he re-imagined historic, Black, female 'commanders': Harriet Tubman, Queen Nanny of the Maroons, Yaa Asantewaa and Njinga Mbandi. Donkor took visual inspiration for his ancient heroines from aristocratic portrayals of British artists, including Sir Joshua Reynolds, who painted contemporaries of the African women depicted. He curated the exhibition Hawkins & Co at Liverpool's Contemporary Urban Centre (2008) which explored different aspects of the culture and history of the transatlantic African-Caribbean diaspora, featuring the work of 15 artists including George ‘Fowokan' Kelly, Keith Piper and Chinwe Chukwuogo Roy MBE. In 2015 Donkor’s painting The Rescue of Andromeda (2011) was the centrepiece of his contribution to The Black Subject symposium held at Tate Britain. In 2020 Donkor published his essay Africana Andromeda: Contemporary Painting and the Classical Black Figure in the anthology Classicisms in the Black Atlantic. His essay focused on the Greek myth of Andromeda who, according to the Roman poet, Ovid, was an Ethiopian princess rescued from death by Perseus. Donkor explored this racialised, gendered narrative and Andromeda’s suppressed African heritage through writing, reading, digital design, painting, photography, and drawing.
Donkor continues to hold a number of teaching posts in UK art schools. Kimathi Donkor's work is represented in UK public collections, including the British Museum, London; International Slavery Museum, Liverpool; and Wolverhampton Art Gallery;
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Kimathi Donkor]
Publications related to [Kimathi Donkor] in the Ben Uri Library