London-based artist Dr Kimathi Donkor holds a PhD from Chelsea College of Arts as well as an MA from Camberwell College of Art and a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths. He is a Senior Lecturer at Wimbledon College of Art.

 

His work re-imagines historic and mythic encounters across Africa and its global Diasporas has been shown in solo and group exhibitions across the UK as well as internationally in Italy, Portugal, South Africa and Brazil—including at the 29th São Paulo Biennial.

 

Fascinated by the infinite capacity of the painted surface to represent our deepest desires and concerns, Donkor has depicted famous black freedom fighters such as Harriet Tubman and Njinga Mbandi using imagery drawn from canonical western artists like Caravaggio. In other works, African religious figures like the black wife of Moses or the legendary Ethiopian Saint Iphigenia are re-interpreted in 21st-century settings.