Belgian-Congolese visual artist and filmmaker, Léonard Pongo’s practice interlaces photography with textile objects, experimental printing techniques, and moving images to form immersive mixed-media installations. Deeply inspired by Congolese landscapes, philosophies, and craft traditions, Pongo divides his time between long-term projects in the DRC, teaching, and commissioned work. Committed to expanding the visibility of African visual narratives, Pongo cultivates a practice that is at once artistic, pedagogical, and collaborative, situating his work at the intersection of image-making, cultural memory, and collective imagination. 

Born in 1988, Léonard Pongo lives and works between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Belgium. Following a BA in Political & Social Sciences at Maastricht University in 2009, Pongo graduated from the Bussel’s Art School with a BA in Visual Arts: Photography in 2012.

Pongo is co-director of The Photographic Collective, a platform dedicated to supporting and amplifying the voices of African artists. In Belgium, he mentors emerging practitioners at MINO Lab alongside Otobong Nkanga, serves as an associate researcher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and lectures at the Kinshasa Academy of Fine Arts. Pongo has received numerous awards and grants which include, among others, the CAP Prize for Contemporary African Photography (2023) and The Prix de l’OIF (Rencontres de Bamako) (2019). Notable solo presentations include; Enter 14: Léonard Pongo – Primordial Earth at Mu.ZEE in Ostend, Belgium in 2022; Léonard Pongo: Primordial Earth at Bozar in Brussels, Belgium in 2021; and The Uncanny at Contretype in Brussels, Belgium in 2015.

Pongo’s work has also been featured in numerous biennales including the Dak’Art Biennial: Off as part of  Encounters - Black Rock Senegal Alumni (curated by Jareh Das) in Dakar, Senegal in 2024; Biennial Rencontres Photographiques de Guyane: Notre paysage est son propre monument in Saint-Louis, French Guiana in 2023; Lagos Photo Festival in Lagos, Nigeria in 2020; the 6th Lubumbashi Biennale: Future Genealogies, Tales from the Equatorial Line in Lubumbashi, DR Congo and Rencontres de Bamako in Bamako, Mali, both in  2019; and the 3rd Beijing Photo Biennial at CAFA Art Museum in  Beijing, China in 2018.

His work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, National Geographic, The New Yorker and Vogue, amoungst others. He was selected by Rogen Ballen as an ArtReview “Future Great” for 2025 for his series The Uncanny.

In 2026 Pongo will present his first major solo exhibition at the FOMU (Photo Museum), in Antwerp, Belgium.