Meet Joshua Donkor, Jackson’s Art Prize 2025 Guest Judge


Artist Joshua Donkor is a Guest Judge for Jackson’s Art Prize 2025. His work uses portraiture as a tool to subvert monolithic portrayals of Black identity. In this interview, he discusses his process of creating layered portraits to capture intimate personal narratives, the exhibitions that have inspired him this past year, and why he believes it’s crucial for younger artists to get their work seen.


 

Guest Judges

Anita Klein: Printmaker and painter, fellow and past president of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers

Anne Rothenstein: Artist represented by Stephen Friedman Gallery, RWA Academician

Péjú Oshin: Curator, writer, and lecturer whose work sits at the intersection of art, style, & culture

Hugo Barclay: Director of Affordable Art Fair UK, Curator, and Art Advisor

Joshua Donkor: Artist, member of the Contemporary British Portrait Painters

Andrew Torr: Artist, winner of Jackson’s Art Prize 2024 with his painting, Estate

 


 

Interview with Joshua Donkor

Josephine: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your artistic practice?

Joshua: My name is Joshua Donkor, I’m predominantly an oil painter. The work I create is all about stories of immigration and diaspora. I’m interested in that space that exists between cultures, between places, and how people navigate those experiences through different generations. I try to find ways of exploring and expressing that and capturing intimate personal narratives through the paintings I create. While it’s predominantly oil paint, I also use mixed media methods. I use image transfers to incorporate artifacts, photos, and memories that the people I work with cherish very deeply, and that they feel have informed them and informed their lives in different ways. So I find ways to incorporate that to create these really layered portraits, that not only reflect people’s personal identities but also the journeys they’ve experienced throughout their lives.

 

Joshua Donkor

Worlds Apart, 2023
Joshua Donkor
Oil paint, image transfers and graphite on canvas, 120 x 90cm | 47.2 x 35.4 in

 

Josephine: Can you tell us about a highlight or memorable moment you’ve had in your career?

Joshua: A few career highlights so far include an exhibition created by Ronan McKenzie in collaboration with Netflix and Intermission Film, called Portrait of a Top Boy. I was asked to paint a portrait of Sully from the series, which was quite a different experience, working alongside Netflix and the Intermission team – it was quite exciting. I was also recently fortunate enough to receive the Royal Society of British Artists’ Rome Scholarship, which allowed me to spend September in Rome. I had the opportunity to immerse myself in the city’s rich history and now I’m working on creating a few paintings inspired by my time there.

And most recently I’ve got an upcoming solo show with the Holburne Museum in Bath. Since I grew up in Bath, being able to exhibit in the museum I grew up visiting with my family is incredibly exciting for all of us. Seeing my art in that space, with my family’s history embedded in the work, will be a surreal and deeply powerful moment for both me and my family.

 

Joshua Donkor

Aliyah Snap Shot, 2023
Joshua Donkor
Oil paint, image transfers and graphite on circular board, 60 cm | 23.6 in

 

Josephine: What exhibitions or artists have inspired you over the last year?

Joshua: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. It was this incredible retrospective of her career and the narratives that she creates through her paintings, and that one really stood out for me.

Another artist would be Toyin Ojih Odutola, who had an exhibition called A Countervailing Theory. That was just this incredible series of paintings, again, that captured a really interesting full-circle narrative. It was a different way of working that I hadn’t really seen too many artists use. And I absolutely loved that show. There have been several excellent exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery, including The Time is Always Now, which featured Claudette Johnson and Michael Armitage, again, so many artists that I look up to in his work, absolutely love. And to see them all together in that same space, working in the ways that they do, made for a fascinating exhibition. I think that’s one of the best things about being in London, you have access to these incredible artists and shows right on your doorstep, so you’re never short of inspiration.

 

Joshua Donkor

Chembo Liandisha, I Have More Souls Than One, 2021
Joshua Donkor
Oil paint, image transfers and graphite on board, 80 cm | 31.4 in

 

Josephine: How important or helpful do you think awards and competitions are to artists today, and what makes a good competition?

Joshua: I think art competitions are incredibly important, especially for young emerging artists. I think that the first experience of getting your work out there and showing it to the public is so daunting, but also so important because that’s the real test of whether your work is communicating with people. I think that’s probably the most essential thing for all artists. And then on top of that, it’s exposure, which can be good and bad. But I think, especially as a young artist, to be able to get your work out there, to get it seen, is the most important thing you can really be doing.

 

Josephine: Are you looking forward to selecting the winner of your own Judges Choice award?

Joshua: Yeah, I’m very excited to select a winner. It’s a very new experience for me, being a judge. I’m still an emerging artist, so to get the chance to be on the other end of it and to be the one seeing the work that’s coming through is a really interesting experience. I hope I can provide a slightly different perspective as well, of a younger artist looking to show their work for the first time. And hopefully that’s a really important viewpoint when I’m selecting a potential winner.

 

Joshua Donkor

Easton Daydreams, 2024
Joshua Donkor
Oil, image transfers and graphite on canvas, 160 × 120 cm | 62.9 x 47.2 in

 

Josephine: What will you be looking for amongst the submissions?

Joshua: I think in the submissions I’ll mainly be looking for work that really communicates. Having a unique visual style is also very important, just to make sure that your work stands out. And I think the best work is always the work that you feel an instant connection to, that you can really learn from or see from a different perspective. I’m very curious to see what everyone’s produced and yeah, very excited to eventually pick a winner.

 

Emmanuel Ancestral Foundations, 2021
Joshua Donkor
Oil paint, image transfers and graphite on board, 40 x 60 cm | 15.7 x 23.6 in

 

Josephine: What advice would you give to artists who are thinking about entering Jackson’s Art Prize 2025?

Joshua: I think the advice I’d give to artists thinking about entering the competition is to select the work that you feel most passionately about. I think the work we produce that we believe in and that we feel really represents us tends to be our strongest work. So I think the advice I’d give would be to trust your gut and go with that work that you really, really believe in. And I think hopefully that will translate to the judges.

Watch our interview with Joshua Donkor on Instagram

Visit Joshua’s website

Follow Joshua on Instagram

 


 

Further Reading

How We Collaborate With Artists

Jackson’s Art Prize 2024 Exhibition at the Affordable Art Fair

Art Fair Checklist for Artists

Expert Advice on Making Your Way as an Artist

 

Visit Jackson’s Art Prize website

 



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