[5] He is of Ghanaian, Anglo-Jewish and Jamaican family heritage,[6] and his figurative paintings depict "African diasporic bodies and souls as sites of heroism and martydom, empowerment and fragility...myth and matter".
[12] Kimathi Donkor's paintings have featured in prominent international exhibitions, including at London's National Portrait Gallery, the 15th Sharjah Biennial, UAE,[13] the Dulwich Picture Gallery,[14] the 29th São Paulo Art Biennial, the Institute of Contemporary Arts,[15] the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and the International Slavery Museum.
Sunday Times art critic, Waldemar Januszczak noted that "As a genre, history painting has remembrance and societal education as its chief objectives.
[30] Writing about his 2013, London solo show, Daddy, I want to be a black artist, Yvette Greslé proposed Donkor as “one of the most significant figurative painters, of his generation, working in the United Kingdom today”.
[10] In 2017, writing about his work at the Diaspora Pavilion during the 57th Venice Biennale, Phil Brett noted that Donkor, "known for his dramatic figurative art of key moments of black history, whether the subject is the murder of Stephen Lawrence or Nanny of the Maroons leading slave rebellions in Jamaica, has a direct style, which never tries to over-complicate".
[31] In 2008, Donkor was commissioned to curate the touring group show Hawkins & Co at Liverpool's Contemporary Urban Centre,[32] featuring 70 works by 15 artists, including Raimi Gbadamosi, Keith Piper, George "Fowokan" Kelly and Chinwe Chukwuogo Roy MBE.
[33] In 2009, Donkor embarked on a three-year project at Tate Britain, Seeing Through, which engaged a group of young people from London foster homes in producing and exhibiting art at the museum.