Léonard Pongo is a visual artist who lives and works between BE & DRC.

On view

Venice Biennale — 9 May – 22 November 2026

  • The Tributes
    Arsenale, Venice: In Minor Keys, Venice Biennale, May – November 2026
  • Inhabiting the Landscape
    Arsenale, Venice: In Minor Keys, Venice Biennale, May – November 2026
  • Mbanza Tapestry
    Scuola Grande di San Marco: DRC Pavilion, Venice Biennale, May – November 2026

Still on

  • Second Nature
    Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City:
    Photography in the Age of the Anthropocene, May – Sep 2026

Upcoming

  • Dialogue with the Source
    Solo exhibition at FOMU, Antwerp · September 2026 – January 2027
Works
  • The Tributes, 2026
    Mixed-media installation
    Paint, printed glass, woven textile, mirrored floor, steel
  • Apophenia, 2025
    Paint, glass, image transfer, print on metallic paper
    Monograph, Maison CFC
  • Tales from the Source, 2024
    Experimental film, 38 min
  • Primordial Earth, 2017– ongoing
    Mixed-media installation
    Film, aluminium print, printed veils, others.
  • The Necessary Evil, 2013
    Experimental documentary, 11’19”
  • The Uncanny, 2011–23
    Photography
    Monograph, GOST Books
About

Léonard Pongo is a visual artist and filmmaker who lives and works between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Belgium. His practice interlaces a lens-based approach with textile design, experimental printing techniques and moving images to form immersive mixed-media installations.

Pongo’s practice aims toward subjective, experiential modes of expression that resist fixed narratives and embrace the opacity of what the image refuses to show. His work draws deeply from Congolese cosmologies and oral traditions, and challenge perception’s fluidity, embracing the idea tha “not everything is visible”, which he employs full-spectrum imagery –capturing wavelengths beyond human vision– to create surreal, impossible images that challenge representations of the land

Dividing his time between long-term projects in the DRC, teaching and commissions, Pongo is committed to expanding the visibility of African narratives. He is a member of The Photographic Collective, a platform dedicated to supporting and amplifying the voices of African artists. He mentors emerging practitioners at MINO Lab Antwerp and is an associate researcher with Thinking Tools at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. He teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kinshasa.

Gallery representation (BeNeLux): Kristof De Clercq gallery, Ghent, Belgium

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