LÉONARD PONGO
Born in 1988 in Belgium. He lives and works between Bruxelles, Belgium, and Kinshasa, Congo DR.
Léonard Pongo is a visual artist and photographer. He sees photography as a tool to reappropriate his Congolese culture and documents with a project like Uncanny the daily life of the big cities in Congo. This project has won him several international awards.
He now focuses on exploring the diversity of the DRC’s landscapes and offers allegorical imagery of the country, imbued with a sense of magical beauty and mystical power.
Léonard Pongo’s work has been published worldwide and presented in numerous exhibitions, including IncarNations at the Bozar Center for Fine Arts (Bruxelles, 2019), curated by Kendell Geers and Sindika Dokolo, and the 3rd Beijing Photography Biennale at the CAFA Art Museum. He was chosen as one of PDN’s 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch in 2016. He is a recipient of the 2017 Visura Fellowship, the 2018 Getty Reportage Fellowship and participated in the 2018 Joop Swart Masterclass.
Primordial Earth, his latest project, was presented at the Lubumbashi Biennale and the Rencontres de Bamako where it was awarded the “Prix de l’OIF”. In 2021, he will have a solo exhibition at Bozar Brussels. In 2022, he exhibited at the 31 PROJECT gallery during the exhibition "I, myself, am the sun" curated by Liz Gomis. In the same year, the Mu.Zee in Oostende, Belgium, devoted him a solo exhibition. He is also a participant in the Black Rock residency in Dakar (SN), founded by Kehinde Wiley.
CURRICULUM VITAE
SOLO SHOWS
2022
Primordial Earth, Mu.Zee, Oostende - BE
2021
Strangely Familiar, Foreign Agent, Lausanne, CH
Léonard Pongo, Primordial Earth – The Beginnings, The Agprognostic Temple, Bruxelles - BE
Primordial Earth, The Centre for Fine Arts, Bruxelles – BE
GROUP SHOWS
2023
Effet de Groupe, 31 PROJECT, Paris - FR
Cape Town Art Fair, 31 PROJECT, Cape Town - SA
Art Paris Art Fair, 31 PROJECT, Paris - FR
2022
Consume by, Arnhem Museum of Contemporary Arts, Arnhem - NL
Breada Photo 2022: Theater of Dreams, Breda - NL
"I, myself, am the sun", (curated by Liz Gomis), 31 PROJECT, Paris - FR
(Un)Charted grounds, Dakar biennale, Dakar - SN
2021
Photo Vogue Festival 2021, Milan - IT
My whole body changed into something else, Stevenson Gallery,
Cape Town – SA
Five Contemporary African Photographers, The Photographers’ Gallery, London – UK
Radically Naive / Naively Radical, Extra City, Anvers - BE
Extractions, A Two Dogs Company, Bruxelles - BE
2020
Lagos Photo Festival Home Museum, Lagos - NGA
1:54, The Photographic collective, London – UK
Volklinger Hutte “New African photography“, Völklingen - DE
Croyances : faire et défaire l’invisible, Institut des cultures d’Islam, Paris – FR
2019
Les Rencontres de Bamako, Bamako – MALI
Lubumbashi biennale, Lubumbashi – DRC
The New Jerusalem, Bruxelles - BE
Incarnations, Sindika Dokolo Foundation, Bozar, Bruxelles - BE.TIFF, Antwerp Photo Museum, Anvers - BE
2018
CAFA, 3rd Beijing Photography Biennale, Beijing - CHN
2017
Rencontres d’Arles, Arles – FR
2016
Lagos Photo Festival, Lagos – NGA
Arles’ nuits de la photo, Arles – FR
Art Basel, Edition POPCAP, Basel – CH
2015
Musée d’art contemporain de Rome, Rome – IT
Noorderlicht photo festival, Groningen, NL
Delhi Photo Festival, Delhi – IMD
Lodz Fotowestival, Berlin – DE
Popcap, Berlin Gallery Week, Berlin – DE
The Uncanny, Contretype art gallery, Bruxelles – BE
AWARDS
2021
Selected for CAP Prize 2021, Basel – CH
ICP/GOST first prize for photo book, London– UK
2020
Finalist, Meitar Award for Excellence in Photography, Tel Aviv - IL
2019
Award of l’OIF recipient for Bamako Exhibition design and project
2018
Getty Reportage Grant
2017
Awarded Visura Grant 2017, New York – USA
NOOR agency, Amsterdam - NL
2016
Awarded “Vocatio” grant, Bruxelles - BE
Selected among the emerging photographers of the PDN “30 under 30”, New York - USA
2014
Awarded the POPCAP 14
2013
A Certain Kind of Energy — catalogue, Hors Format Gallery
RESIDENCIES
2022
Black Rock Sénégal, Dakar - SN
2019
Residency “Le Point du Jour” art centre, Cherbourg – FR
Research residency with Dokoutine, Bohicon - BN
2016
Residency, KAS, Kin ArtStudio
2013
Residency during Lumbumbashi Art Biennale
INTERVENTIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
2021
Published in Le Monde Afrique – FR
2020
Intervention, Yala Kisukidi and selected artists: Kinshasa Biennale
Intervention avec Dr. Sandrine Colard, FOMU Antwerp, Anvers - BE
Publication of Primordial Earth, Vogue Italy with Astrid Lepoultier
Speaker, Visa pour l’image, Perpignan - FR
Congoville Catalogue, Middelheim Museum, Anvers - BE
2019
Publication of Primordial Earth, Hart Magazine #197
2017
Publication of Necessary Evil, National Geographic, New York – USA
National Geographic 2017 Seminar, Washington DC – USA
2016
Publication of book with IHA/CATPC
2015
Publication, The Uncanny, CNN
WITH 31 PROJECT
EXHIBITIONS
2023
Effet de Groupe, group show, Paris - FR
2022
"Je suis moi-même le soleil", group show, Paris - FR
FAIRS
2023
Cape Town Art Fair, group show, Paris - FR
Art Paris Art Fair, group show, Paris - FR