Joshua Donkor (b. 1997, UK) is a Ghanian-British painter whose work uses portraiture as a tool to subvert monolithic portrayals of Black identity.

Donkor approaches portraiture as a collaborative exercise between him and his sitters. His process involves meeting with the subjects of his paintings on multiple occasions and going through their personal effects and photographs. Donkor works with them to identify the images that most potently convey the details of their personal narrative, including family photos, fabrics, and personal belongings. Each portrait Donkor paints includes both the image of the sitter, as well as layered visual references to all of the items they picked out together.

The material depth of the paintings comes about through Donkor’s method of transferring layer after layer onto the surfaces of his paintings. Using a range of different painting and printing and layering techniques, he literally embeds the histories of his sitters into the work.

Although the subject matter of Donkor’s paintings is deeply personal and completely idiosyncratic—often having to deal with specific African roots and the individual experiences specific people have had growing up Black in Western societies—all types of viewers have been able to respond deeply to the images. Somehow, widely relatable content is communicated through the specificity of the images.

“The clarity of memory has significance,” Donkor says. “You can listen to the conversation through the paintings and trace the stories through the person’s life.”

This voyeuristic peek into private aspects of people’s lives, the lives of total strangers, complicates the White or colonial gaze. The monolith of Black identity becomes more complicated, creating a deeper heritage with which a wider range of people can ultimately connect.

“My goal is to tell people’s individual stories,” Donkor says. “What essentially makes the work I do so accessible to so many people has to do with the fact that so many people have a background of being in between; between different cultures and different families. People are stuck in between different worlds that are equally part of themselves. That comes through in the work.”

Written by Phillip Barcio, Associate Director of Interpretation at The Kavi Gupta Gallery

2017-2020

BA, Cardiff Metropolitan School of Arts and Design, Wales, UK.

2018-2019

Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia Venice Academy of Fine Art (Erasmus)

2020-2022

Artist benevolent Fellow

Young Masters, Highly Commended Prize 2023

RBA Rising stars finalist 2023

Commissioned artists for “The World Reimagined”

Tate Collective commission 2022

Selected for the Holburne Artist Residency 2022

Shortlisted for The Signature Art Prize 2022

Selected to feature in the documentary series “The Next Big Thing” and awarded the Judges Prize 2021

Recipient of the Artist Benevolent Fund Step Change Program Fellowship, 2020

Winner of the AOI Member Awards and a “Highly Commended Award” in World Illustration Awards 2020

Selected to feature in Sky Portrait Artist of the Year 2020

Featured in The AOI 10 UK Graduates to watch.

The Blue Stag Top 10 Creative Graduates in Wales, 2020

Featured Artwork in BBC’S “Staged”, 2020

Turner Trophy awarded for painting “Fading memories” exhibited at the Mayor of Bath Exhibition 2019.

January, 2023

I have more souls than one, Bankside Hotel, London.

2023

Young Masters Art Prize, October 2023

Gucci Cosmos, October 2023

Portrait of a Top Boy, curated by Ronan McKenzie in partnership with Netflix and Intermission film. Somerset House September 2023

Royal Society of Portrait painters Exhibition May 2023

RBA rising Stars, April 2023

2022

The Discerning Eye, November 2022

The Stories we tell, Chilli Art Projects, July 2022

Skin and Masks, The Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, June 2022

Bath Society of Artists Exhibition, The Victoria Gallery, May 2022

Souls and Spirits, Voltz Clarke Gallery, New York, March 2022

Portrait Artist of the Year: The Exhibition, The Compton Verney Gallery, February 2022

The Sequested Prize, January 2022

2021

The Other Art Fair, presented by Saatchi art, October 2021

“Awakening” at Noho Studios gallery, London September 2021

Figurative Art Now, the Federation of British Painters 2021

The Next Big Thing Exhibition, The Old Design Museum 2021

TUC Roots and Culture Virtual Exhibition 2021

Cardiff Metropolitan Virtual Degree show Exhibition 2021

2020

Mayor of Bath Exhibition 2020

Escapism Exhibition at ArcadeCampfa, Cardiff, 2020