Selected projects 2002–2017
Selected projects 2002–2017
SOME CLARITY OF VISION
New paintings during a two-month residency drew on research into the country’s history, with everyday life interpreted through black heroines and religious iconography.
Key works included For Moses Had Married An Ethiopian Woman—Numbers 12:1 (left) a life-sized double portrait in which the biblical, black wife of the prophet seeming to anticipate happily her impending Exodus to the promised land—while the site of the infamous Marikana mine massacre is visible on the horizon beyond.
SOME CLARITY OF VISION
Some Clarity of Vision—a 2015 solo exhibition at Gallery MOMO in Johannesburg, South Africa.
New paintings during a two-month residency drew on research into the country’s history, with everyday life interpreted through black heroines and religious iconography.
Key works included For Moses Had Married An Ethiopian Woman—Numbers 12:1 (pictured) a life-sized double portrait in which the biblical, black wife of the prophet seeming to anticipate happily her impending Exodus to the promised land—while the site of the infamous Marikana mine massacre is visible on the horizon beyond.
AFRICANA UNMASKED
Taking studio practice as a starting point, the project investigated how the ‘Home of British Art’ intersected with questions of African Diaspora and identity.
A key work, titled The Rescue of Andromeda (2011, pictured) was the centrepiece of Donkor’s contribution to The Black Subject symposium held at Tate Britain in 2015. Dr Donkor is a lecturer in Fine Art and a post-doctoral research fellow with the TrAIN research centre at the University of the Arts London—he also teaches at The Royal College of Art.
AFRICANA UNMASKED
In 2016, Kimathi Donkor was awarded a PhD by Chelsea College of Arts for the practice-led research project Africana Unmasked: Fugitive Signs of Africa in Tate’s British Collection.
Taking studio practice as a starting point, the project investigated how the ‘Home of British Art’ intersected with questions of African Diaspora and identity.
A key work, titled The Rescue of Andromeda (2011, pictured) was the centrepiece of Donkor’s contribution to The Black Subject symposium held at Tate Britain in 2015. Dr Donkor is a lecturer in Fine Art and a post-doctoral research fellow with the TrAIN research centre at the University of the Arts London—he also teaches at The Royal College of Art.
DADDY, I WANT
TO BE A BLACK ARTIST
Visits and behind-the-scenes workshops with the group explored the Tate Gallery’s collection of work by African and Caribbean Diaspora artists.
Commissioned by the Peckham Platform gallery to make new work based on these encounters, Donkor created paintings, drawings and an interactive print and digital installation called Learning Zone (detail pictured)—that encouraged visitors to research Black British artists at Tate.
DADDY, I WANT TO BE A BLACK ARTIST
In 2013, the London-based, black youth organisation ‘Leaders of Tomorrow’ joined Kimathi Donkor for Daddy, I want to be a Black Artist
Visits and behind-the-scenes workshops with the group explored the Tate Gallery’s collection of work by African and Caribbean Diaspora artists.
Commissioned by the Peckham Platform gallery to make new work based on these encounters, Donkor created paintings, drawings and an interactive print and digital installation called Learning Zone (detail pictured)—that encouraged visitors to research Black British artists at Tate.
QUEENS OF THE UNDEAD
Each painting re-imagined historic, black, female commanders: Harriet Tubman, Queen Nanny of the Maroons, Yaa Asantewaa and Njinga Mbandi.
21st-century Londoners posed for Donkor’s portrayals of the ancient heroines, with imagery also appropriated from artists—such as Sir Joshua Reynolds—who were contemporaries of the women depicted.
Dr David Dibosa and Professor Carol Tulloch wrote texts for the exhibition booklet; the gallery display was curated by Tessa Jackson and Grant Watson.
QUEENS OF THE UNDEAD
InIVA (the Institute of International Visual Art) commissioned Kimathi Donkor to produce new work for the solo show Queens of The Undead at Rivington Place, London, in 2012.
Each painting re-imagined historic, black, female commanders: Harriet Tubman, Queen Nanny of the Maroons, Yaa Asantewaa and Njinga Mbandi.
21st-century Londoners posed for Donkor’s portrayals of the ancient heroines, with imagery also appropriated from artists—such as Sir Joshua Reynolds—who were contemporaries of the women depicted.
Dr David Dibosa and Professor Carol Tulloch wrote texts for the exhibition booklet; the gallery display was curated by Tessa Jackson and Grant Watson.
HAWKINS & CO
Named after the Elizabethan mariner Sir John Hawkins, the exhibition brought fresh, African Diaspora perspectives to the bicentenary of Britain’s 1807 Act to Abolish the Slave Trade.
In 2008, Donkor curated an expanded version of the project as a major, two-month exhibition in Liverpool’s Contemporary Urban Centre. The display included 70 artworks by 15 artists, including Keith Piper, Barbara Walker and Raimi Gbadamosi—with a new commission from Jean-François Boclé. Donkor’s 2008 solo exhibition on the theme was held at the The Market Theatre Gallery in Armagh, Northern Ireland.
In 2017, Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum added a key work from the project—UK Diaspora (pictured)—to their permanent collection of contemporary art.
HAWKINS & CO
In 2007, Kimathi Donkor organised the group show Hawkins & Co at London’s Elspeth Kyle Gallery.
Named after the Elizabethan mariner Sir John Hawkins, the exhibition brought fresh, African Diaspora perspectives to the bicentenary of Britain’s 1807 Act to Abolish the Slave Trade.
In 2008, Donkor curated an expanded version of the project as a major, two-month exhibition in Liverpool’s Contemporary Urban Centre. The display included 70 artworks by 15 artists, including Keith Piper, Barbara Walker and Raimi Gbadamosi—with a new commission from Jean-François Boclé. Donkor’s 2008 solo exhibition on the theme was held at the The Market Theatre Gallery in Armagh, Northern Ireland.
In 2017, Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum added a key work from the project—UK Diaspora (pictured)—to their permanent collection of contemporary art.
FALL / UPRSING
The paintings were created to mark 20 years since London’s urban disturbances of 1985, which had centred on the police shooting of Cherry Groce and the deaths of Cynthia Jarrett and Keith Blakelock.
Works from the series have also been exhibited at London’s Rivington Place, The New Art Exchange in Nottingham and the Diaspora Pavilion in Venice.
In 2016, the Wolverhampton Art Gallery acquired two paintings from the series—Madonna Metropolitan: the Death of Cynthia Jarrett (pictured) and Still Life: the Tottenham 3
FALL / UPRSING
In 2005, The Bettie Morton Gallery— at the time, Britain’s only black-owned contemporary art space—invited Kimathi Donkor to exhibit a new body of work called Fall/Uprising.
The paintings were created to mark 20 years since London’s urban disturbances of 1985, which had centred on the police shooting of Cherry Groce and the deaths of Cynthia Jarrett and Keith Blakelock.
Works from the series have also been exhibited at London’s Rivington Place, The New Art Exchange in Nottingham and the Diaspora Pavilion in Venice.
In 2016, the Wolverhampton Art Gallery acquired two paintings from the series—Madonna Metropolitan: the Death of Cynthia Jarrett (pictured) and Still Life: the Tottenham 3
CARIBBEAN PASSION:
HAITI 1804
Based on extensive research into the Haitian revolution, his series of paintings produced between 2002 and 2004 celebrated the bicentenary of the Caribbean state’s declaration of independence. In 2005, the show toured to the Art Exchange Gallery in Nottingham, England.
Toussaint L’Overture at Bedourete (pictured) draws on C.L.R. James’s description of the black general’s defiance in the face of Napoleon’s invading army. An account of the painting’s iconology can be found in Dr Philip Kaisary’s 2014 book The Haitian Revolution in the Literary Imagination.
CARIBBEAN PASSION: HAITI 1804
Donkor’s first solo exhibition at London’s Bettie Morton Gallery was Caribbean Passion: Haiti 1804.
Based on extensive research into the Haitian revolution, his series of paintings produced between 2002 and 2004 celebrated the bicentenary of the Caribbean state’s declaration of independence. In 2005, the show toured to the Art Exchange Gallery in Nottingham, England.
Toussaint L’Overture at Bedourete (pictured) draws on C.L.R. James’s description of the black general’s defiance in the face of Napoleon’s invading army. An account of the painting’s iconology can be found in Dr Philip Kaisary’s 2014 book The Haitian Revolution in the Literary Imagination.