Exhibitions
Familial Traces
Abbot Hall
11th April - 3rd October 2026
Joshua Donkor and Lela Harris
Familial Traces brings together the work of two of the UK’s most exciting emerging, Black artistic voices. Through their distinct and individual use of portraiture, both Joshua Donkor and Lela Harris explore their family legacy, racial heritage and connection to place, both known and imagined. The heart of Familial Traces lies in the tension between documented lineage and the archival void. For Donkor, portraiture is a means of bridging geographical distance. His work functions as a vivid, material recording of a known family history in Ghana—giving names, faces, and textures to a personal genealogy that remains physically remote but ancestrally present. In contrast, Harris navigates the complexities of a migrant and racial heritage that can only be partially known. Where Donkor records, Harris recovers; her practice involves the reconstruction of identity, using painting and drawing to manifest figures who have been obscured by, or sparsely documented within, the historical record. By placing these recovered histories alongside Donkor’s specific family portraits, the exhibition explores how we construct a sense of self-whether working from the clarity of a photograph or the fragments of a paper trail.
Portrait and Power
1 November 2025 - 30 May 2026
Gregynog Gallery
This exhibition invites you to look — and look again.
Portrait & Power focuses on those that have often been left out of history, exploring how identity, the way we look at others, and power all come together in portraiture. Using both old and new artworks, the exhibition invites us to rethink traditional roles, challenge how portraits are usually made, and explore how they reflect — or change — the stories we tell about gender, race, class, and belonging.
As you visit the exhibition, prepare to look at portraits in new ways, and to ask new questions:
Who has the power here?
What does it mean to be seen — or not seen?
What role do you play when you look at a portrait?
Exhibition highlights include works that have only recently been added to the collection by artists such as Anya Paintsil, Sue Williams and Isobel Adonis, along with works by artists such as Gwen John, Shani Rhys James and Claudia Williams.
The Holburne Musuem
Joshua Donkor
I have more souls than one
18 January – 5 May 2025
The Holburne is pleased to present a display of recent works by Joshua Donkor (b. 1997, UK), a Ghanian-British painter who grew up in Bath.
His work is deeply personal, using portraiture to reflect family history, identities and experiences, exploring how feelings of belonging and estrangement play out through different generations.
Donkor approaches portraiture as a collaborative exercise between him and his sitters. He works with the subjects of his paintings to identify objects and images that convey their personal narrative, including family photos, fabrics and personal belongings.
Using a range of different painting and printing techniques, he literally embeds the histories of his sitters into the work, combining their image with layered visual references to the items they picked out together. The images are built up with glimpses of the figure’s homes and families: two crucial elements that inform identity. The resulting works are complex representations of multiple generations, time periods and memories that have informed the past, and continue to influence the future.
Chris Stephens, Director of the Holburne Museum, said: “We first worked with Joshua in 2022, presenting a number of recent works in a residency at The Edge Gallery at the University of Bath. The power and potency of his works is remarkable and we’re delighted to be working with him once more, introducing his work to wider audiences at the Museum this spring.”
“Exhibiting this body of work at the Holburne Museum feels like a real full-circle moment for me. I grew up in Bath, so my first exposure to art was in places like the Holburne, as a child I even attended workshops there with my mum. To think that I will now have the opportunity to share my own paintings and stories in this space is incredibly special for me and my family. I hope my paintings will resonate with people of all ages and backgrounds in telling their stories of family history and help inspire a new generation of young storytellers.”
Features/Awards
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2024
Royal Society of British Artist Rome Scholarship 2024
Commissioned art work for The National Library of Wales
Featured by Lisa Anderson in the Power List 2024
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2023
Young Masters, Highly Commended Prize
RBA Rising stars finalist
VAA Professional Artist Award “Highly Commended”
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2022
Commissioned artists for “The World Reimagined”
Tate Collective commission
Selected for the Holburne Artist Residency
Shortlisted for The Signature Art Prize
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2021
Interview on Private View, Soho radio with Maeve Doyle
Selected to feature in the documentary series “The Next Big Thing” and awarded the Judges Prize
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2020
Recipient of the Artist Benevolent Fund Step Change Program Fellowship
Winner of the AOI Member Awards and a “Highly Commended Award” in World Illustration Awards
Selected to feature in Sky Portrait Artist of the Year
Featured in The AOI 10 UK Graduates to watch.
The Blue Stag Top 10 Creative Graduates in Wales
Featured Artwork in BBC’S “Staged”
