Kimathi Donkor

**Kimathi Donkor** bɛ dɔɣi o la yuuni 1965 ni, o nyɛla nucheeni tuun tumdi ŋun ʒi London,  ka o peentin nyɛ din kuli jendiri duniya zaa ni gbansabila taarihi nima. O tuma nyɛla bɛ ni daa nyɛ shɛli ka vihili ka daa zaŋli n niŋ bɛ ni booni shɛli ni duniya zaa (museums) la ni, nti pahi yaɣa nim din gbai  London's National Portrait Gallery,  British Museum, Diaspora Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennial,  29th São Paulo Art Biennial nti pahi 15th Sharjah Biennial. O nyɛla Ghana bilichini mini Anglo-Jewish ni daŋ lan yi Jamaican nim zuɣu,  ka o peetibu tuma nim nyɛ din jendiri  *"African diasporic bodies and souls as sites of heroism and martydom, empowerment and fragility...myth and matter"*. 

## Pilli mini shikuru chandi

Donkor nyɛla bɛ ni dɔɣi so fɔŋ yuli booni  Bournemouth, n be tingbani yuli booni England, yuuni 1965. o daa nyɛla ŋun yɛli o mamaŋ lahi bali ni: " bɛ daa dɔɣi mala  UK ka n ma nyɛ  Anglo-Jewish  ka n ba nyɛ Ghana nira , amaa ka n daa lee nyɛ bɛ ni kpuɣi so kuli  Jamaica mini  UK ti wunsi. Ti daa nyɛla ban be  Zambia saha shɛli, ni Central Africa, ni ka do so ŋun daa kpuɣima maa daa tumdi vet tuma. N naala n shikuru west of England ni, ka daa nai kpuɣi naponŋ chaŋ  London, ni baa ni ka n daa ʒini. Saha shɛli ha, n laanbi ban daa wunsiri ma maa daa nyɛla ban daa che tabi saha shɛli ka daa lan labi na n ti labi bɔ tabi yaha, lala chemi ka duŋ maa golimbu pahi, di ni daaniŋ ka Zambia nim gba pahi. "

Donkor daa deela bɔhimbu shɛhira gbaŋ din nyɛ Art Foundation Diploma la shikuru yuli booni  Bournemouth and Poole College of Arts n daa lahi deegi BA (Hons) degree shɛhira gbaŋ din jendi (fine art ) shikuru yuli booni  Goldsmiths College, University of London, n ti pahi shɛhira gbaŋ din nyɛ  master's degree din jendi ( fine art ) shikuru yuli booni Camberwell College of Arts. O daa nyɛla ŋun deegi o (PhD) shikuru yuli booni  Chelsea College of Arts yuuni 2016. O lahi nyɛla ŋun tim nuu pam zaŋ kpa o ʒilɛlini baŋsim lɛbu polo din nyɛ Black History for Action. Yuuni  2011, ŋuni n daa nyɛ sɔŋsim shɛli din yuli booni Derek Hill Foundation Scholarship la n chaŋ British nim shikuru din be Rome la .

## Selected solo exhibitions
*2024 ''Black History Painting'', Niru Ratnam Gallery, London.
*2023 ''Helix/Idyl'', Niru Ratnam Gallery, London.
*2023 https://www.black-blossoms.online/the-journal/kimathi-donkor-onepisodeseven *On Episode Seven* Holland Park Billboard, London
*2022, *Play, Rest, Work*, University College London Hospital, London, England
*2021, https://www.akadimagazine.com/post/kimathi-donkor-an-exploration-of-african-art *Notebooks* Brixton Library, London
*2021, https://dkuk.biz/art/exhibitions/kimathi-donkor/ *Idylls* DKUK, London 
*2015 ''Some Clarity of Vision'', Gallery MOMO, Johannesburg
*2013 ''Daddy, I want to be a black artist'', Peckham Space, London
*2012 ''Queens of the Undead'', with InIVA at Rivington Place, London
*2008 *Hawkins & Co*, Market Theatre Gallery, Armagh, Northern 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
*2024: "The Time is Always Now Artists Reframe the Black Figure", National Portrait Gallery, London, England (Curated by Ekow Eshun).
*2024: "Soulscapes" , Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, England (Curated by Lisa Anderson).
*2023: "Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present" , Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, UAE (Curated by Hoor Al Qasimi).
*2022-23: "The New African Portraiture. Shariat Collections" , Krems, Austria (Curated by Ekow Eshun).
*2021: "UNTITLED: Art on the conditions of our time", Kettle's  Yard, Cambridge, England (Curated by Paul Goodwin with Guy Haywood).
*2021: "War Inna Babylon: The Community’s Struggle for Truths and Rights", Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England (Curated by Stafford Scott, Kamara Scott and Rianna Jade Parker).
*2021: "QUEEN: From the Collection of CCH Pounder" , the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History Detroit, USA.
*2019: "London Art Fair" , Business Design Centre, London, England (Presented by Ed Cross Fine Art).
*2018: "Diaspora Pavilion: Venice to Wolverhampton" , Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, England (curated by David A. Bailey and Jess Taylor)
*2018: "A History of Drawing", Camberwell Space, London, England (curated by Kelly Chorpening).
*2017: "Diaspora Pavilion" , Venice Biennale, Palazzo Pisani S. Marina, Venice, Italy (curated by David A. Bailey and Jess Taylor).
*2017–18: "Ink And Blood", International Slavery Museum, Liverpool, England (curated by Jean Francois Manicom).
*2017: "Untitled: Art on the Conditions of Our Time", New Art Exchange, Nottingham, England (curated by Paul Goodwin and Hansi Momodu-Gordon) 
*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 Arts and Learning, London
*1985: *Young, Black & Here*, People's Gallery, London
*1985: *Artists Against Apartheid*, Royal Festival Hall, London

## Kundivihira

## Further reading

* Anderson, L., 2024, *Soulscapes*, Dulwich Picture Gallery (London), 
* Anjos, M., & A. Farias, 2010, *29th Bienal Documentation*, São Paulo: Fundação de Bienal São Paulo, 
* Anjos, M., & A. Farias, 2010, *29th Bienal Catalogue*, São Paulo: Fundação de Bienal São Paulo, 
* Barbrook, R., 2014. *Class Wargames: Ludic subversion against spectacular capitalism*, Minor Compositions; distributed by Autonomedia (New York), 
* Benci, J., 2012, *Fine Arts 2011-2012*, British School at Rome (Rome), 
* Bernier, Celeste-Marie, 2019. Stick to the Skin: African American and Black British Art, 1965–2015. University of California Press. 
* Dibosa, D., et al. 2012, *Kimathi Donkor: Queens of the Undead* Iniva (London), 
* Chambers, E., 2014, *Black Artists in British Art: A History from 1950 to the Present*, I.B.Tauris (London and New York), 
* Eshun, E., 2024, *The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure*, National Portrait Gallery (London), 
* Kaisary, P., 2014, *The Haitian Revolution in the Literary Imagination*, London and Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 
* Miranda, M., & A. Páscoa, 2014, *Offline: Between Transits and Journeys*, Lisbon: XEREM Associação Cultural, 
* Miller, M., 2013, *Seeing Through*, London: Tate Young People's Programmes
* Parker, R., 2021, *A Brief History of Black British Art*, Tate Publishing (London), 

## External links
* Kimathi Donkor's official website 
*Kimathi Donkor's page at Niru Ratnam Gallery, London. 
* Kimathi Donkor's page  at Gallery MOMO, Johannesburg, South Africa.
* Kimathi Donkor's page at Omenka Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria.