Joshua donkor- legacy, narrative, and the notion of duality

We are a byproduct of those who come before us and we exist because of them. They inform our perspectives of the world”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          - Joshua Donkor  

Born and raised in Bath, England, Joshua Donkor is a British-Ghanaian portrait artist whose work captures both identity and duality as facets of cultural and familial legacy. Through the exploration of multimedia and oil paint, Donkor’s work surveys a rich time capsule of memory as the painter delves into the generational narratives of his mixed race Ghanaian-British heritage. Through this, he is able to amplify the voices of the members who embody those narratives.

Inspired by traditional British portraiture and his cultural connection to Ghana, Donkor’s use of mixed media and found objects create a dynamic and immersive atmosphere that transpires the narrative and content of his artwork outside the physical boundaries of his paintings. Donkor achieves the transient element of his work by introducing his audience to subtle, but strategically placed details such as the presence of family photographs, personal belongings, and handwritten letters embedded into the foreground of much of his work. The almost ghostly and symbolic nature of these details amongst the stunning visuals of Ghana and the figures he depicts create a passing imprint of memory and homage to generational legacy and personal voice. 

Donkor’s incorporation of these  familial accounts and blend of British and Ghanaian artistic and cultural narratives serve as pivotal anecdotes towards the themes of identity, legacy, and connection to the land that continue to inform the dual nature of Donkor’s personal identity. 

Donkor’s persistent and careful excellence in his craft has awarded him with multiple honors and collection features such as the Tate Collection commission (2022), Young Masters Highly Commended Prize (2023), and commissioned artwork with the National Library of Wales (2024) to name a few. A full list of Donkor’s achievements and artworks are available on his website: https://www.joshuadonkorart.co.uk

In early January, I was lucky to sit down with Donkor and interview him about his work, his aspirations, and his newest exhibition “I Have More Souls Than One,” which pays tribute to the painter’s cultural and familial heritage and the duality that exists within us all. Donkor’s show is currently exhibiting in The Holburne Museum in Bath, England from January 18th-May 5th 2025.

Danso: Multimedia plays a pivotal role in your work. How long does it take to gather your materials (ie photographs, letters, anything personal) before starting your pieces?

Donkor: “A lot of the process is very dependent on who I’m working with. So if I'm doing a portrait of a family member that process can be a lot faster because normally I have most of the material and then I’ll probably speak to them about which images to use but everything is kind of there within my grasp. But then if I am collaborating with someone that I don’t know, then that process is a lot longer because I first need to get to know the person and then from those initial conversations, we will then start to think about imagery and artifacts and what we might use to try and incorporate into the work. So that process can be a lot longer. As I am finding now, especially with commissions, the busier people are the longer you are waiting so that process can either be a matter of days or months depending on who you are working with.”  

Danso: Does the choice of multimedia (i.e. photographs, letters etc) influence the painting or does the painting influence the type of media you choose from?   

Donkor: “I was thinking about that myself. I think it's both really. Because sometimes you will have a rough concept of an idea in your head, so you will be looking for images that are going to work with that concept. But sometimes, that isn’t a good way of working because sometimes you need them [the sitter of the portrait] to go first and see what images they provide. So it tends to be a good middle ground that you find. It was interesting because this is Gaino Lagow [motions to in progress portrait of Gaino Lagow] who I’m creating a portrait of for the National Library of Wales. And initially I had a rough concept in my head, but when I met her that concept became a lot stronger because it turned out everything she was saying really fell into it. So I had this idea because I had been doing some research about her, and I knew she had lived in Cardiff her entire life and had been archiving the history of the entire area. So I thought it would be interesting to have her embedded in that history and to have her be the observer in some way. And then when I met her, she took me straight to the cultural heritage site in Tiger Bay, and everything she was saying was about how she had always lived there. She knew every generation that had passed through, so that worked with the rough concept that I had in my head and the images she provided fed into that. So both sides kind of met if that makes sense. So yes, I think it can change, but hopefully a bit of both.” 

 Danso: You once mentioned “every story is a story about duality.” What does duality mean in the context of your work and how has it been influenced by personal experience?

Donkor: “I remember saying that in the context of these exhibition paintings [Paintings for I Have More Souls Than One]. All of the work that I have done up until this moment has always been about diaspora, displacement, and being between two cultures. So, within that context I think there always is a duality. And certainly that's the case within all if not all, then definitely the majority of these paintings. That’s something that has always really fascinated me, and I think I have always really felt that. Especially being mixed race, it makes a huge difference because you are literally a byproduct of two different races but also two vastly different cultural backgrounds in my case. So yeah, that is a really strange thing to navigate especially when you’re younger, because you spend time with one side of the family and then you might be a certain way with them or feel like you need to be a certain way with them and then feel the same way with the other side. I think that’s always an interesting thing that I kind of grew up with, and it was interesting to find that lots of people experienced that. And as I grew older and had more conversations,  I found that my dad was experiencing that. And I found that as a bit of a shock- I don’t know, I think you probably underestimate how complicated your parents are when you are younger- they’re your parents, you can’t really see beyond that. But having conversations with him when I was older, and especially seeing him in Ghana, that duality was so present in his life. And even that feeling of being an outsider, even when he was in Ghana, it turned out that a lot of frustration came from the fact that he was seen as an outsider there. And again, that sense of being an outsider also plays into that idea of duality. It’s like even within your own environment you’re seen as something else as opposed to in your head, being a part of that country and being a part of that community. So, that’s always been something that fascinates me and has always been a part of the work as well.”   

 Danso: In your work you mention the importance of home and connection to the land. How do the influences of Bath and Ghana as “home” present themselves in your work? 

Donkor: “That's interesting to think about. I don’t have much of Bath present within the actual work, but then it actually is present within all of it because half the photos and images within my work are in Bath. So I was thinking about the pieces and thought ‘I guess that is quite present in the work.’ And I think the environment in Ghana is particularly present in my work. Especially these sort of later pieces, and the family land pieces. And that was an interesting way of tapping into that idea of the environment and how it changes over time. 

One of the important parts of the environment when I use it in my work is that they are these fluid spaces, so they are meant to create this impression of a place, but they are also not solid and it could exist within any time period. One thing I would like to paint more of is probably interiors and show how interiors change. I think it would be interesting looking more at my home in Bath and looking within that. But that’s something I hope to experiment with this year.

But I think it’s been interesting because there's a big challenge about how much you show and how accurate you are. Because I don’t want to create this fully formed impression of a specific place. Like it needs to be quite loose because it’s kind of like a background influence as opposed to the essential part of the work if that makes sense. It’s been something fairly new but something quite exciting that I’m hoping to play around with and keep pushing. And I guess new environments will become more and more important and the other interesting thing I suppose with the new work that I am creating I’m trying to take people back to the areas and places that have been important to them in their lives. So I'm kind of reimagining these new environments that specifically come from them and their memories. So I guess all of these spaces are imagined spaces, they're not real, or they’re what we remember or what we project into them.”

Danso: What is the relationship between the figures and the backgrounds in your work and how does it impact the narrative of your pieces?  

Donkor: “So I guess there’s a really strong connection to the figures, and within all the work, the figures are the most present part of all the paintings. They’re the only things that are kind of solid and fully formed. And even the way they end up being painted in three or four layers, so they’re very detailed. Whereas the backgrounds in comparison are these really sort of fluctuating fluid spaces. I think that also speaks to the fact that I am present with the person, so that impression of them is fully formed. 

But I am not present in  the landscape so it’s either something I’m remembering or they’re remembering. So that automatically means that it's this kind of loose space and I think visually that’s always a really interesting thing to play with. And then it also plays into the whole process that I work with, and the use of printing and old images and fragmented presentation of those images. So hopefully that all plays in together and works with each other and creates that impression that I think unifies all the work that I make hopefully.”

Danso: What is the significance of the title of your upcoming exhibition “I Have More Souls Than One’’ and what does it mean to you?  

Donkor: “So it’s from a book of poetry by Fernando Pessoa, who’s a Portuguese poet. I think he was writing in the early 1900s? I’ll have to double check that. But I remember coming across it and I often look for books of poetry. I find them nice to read and I think poetry is so open. I think that it’s able to really express things that really complex writing can’t express. And I really enjoy that and I think it allows again, for me to really interpret that in my own way and take fragments from that [poetry] and the title of the book of poems was “I Have More Souls Than One.” And just that title alone, as soon as I saw that, I thought ’yeah I really feel that.’ I really feel like I- and we all are- a byproduct of  everyone that’s gone before us even in terms of the fact that we exist in the spaces that we do. It’s a byproduct of all of the decisions every generation that came before us made. The fact that we know about the culture [Ghanaian culture] to the extent we know about it, is because of what’s been passed down whether its oral tradition, or records, or memoirs. We really are this byproduct of  so many people and so many generations. So for me, that’s what that title means. “I Have More Souls Than One,” I am all of these people and all of the generations that have come before me and they make me who I am.”

Danso: How does the theme of legacy play a role in your work? 

Donkor: “Yeah It’s funny because I remember someone saying to me, “these are really beautiful family heirlooms.” And it was something I had never ever thought about and it took me by surprise and I didn't really know how to feel about it at the time. But actually yeah, it was a really beautiful thing to say, because they are. These paintings are legacy. They incorporate so much history, they incorporate so much memory, so many relationships and family dynamics. So yeah, they’re all about legacy, they’re about celebrating all of the  people in our lives, all of our loved ones, all of the complexities that exist in our lives. All of the struggles and searching- all of the wonderful memories and moments that are a little microcosm of our lives. So yeah, they are all about legacy, that's something that’s really lovely and beautiful and I hope in the future they will continue to be seen that way.”   

Danso: What direction would you like to take your artwork in after this exhibition and moving forward?

Donkor:  “After this exhibition I think I would like to continue with this new series that I am working on. And especially working with people outside of my family and telling new stories in different ways. I think seeing how all of this [I Have More Souls Than One Exhibition] works together makes me more excited for that. Because I think it's really rare as an artist that you get an opportunity to see all of your work occupy one space. And it makes such a big difference because obviously you’ll have one or two pieces in a gallery space,  but certainly with the way I work, every piece plays off the next piece. So to be able to see that all together and see how they [the paintings] relate to one another and how they evolve going through the years is incredibly exciting. To be able to see that, learn from that, and then adapt it to the new work I make and the new stories I tell, is super exciting. And then beyond that I think we have to wait and see. Because I think I am conscious the stories I want to tell can be told in so many different ways. So I am curious to push that and see what other ways of working and what other nuances I can find in different methods and different materials even. So yeah, we will have to see what happens beyond that, but I think this new project I am working on  will keep me busy for some time.”

Joshua’s exhibition “I Have More Souls Than One” is available for viewing at The Holburne Museum in Bath, England until May 5th 2025. 

Written by Bella Danso

Portrait of Belle Danso by Connie Wang

Born to Ghanaian-British parents, Isabella (Bella) Danso is a U.S. born university student currently studying painting at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in the United States. Visiting Ghana from an early age, Bella grew up watching her grandmother paint in her studio in Ghana and developed a deep passion for painting and the fine arts. Bella is currently in her third year at university and hopes to pursue a career in curation after her university studies.