Julien Kandolo

Julien “Kando” Kandolo is a Congolese-Canadian visual artist whose powerful mixed media work examines identity, memory, and liberation through a deeply humanist lens. Born in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, and now based in Montreal, Kando merges traditional training from the Académie des Beaux-Arts with contemporary design education from UQAM to create layered, emotive compositions that bridge cultures and histories.

 

Working across painting, drawing, and collage, Kando uses fragmented images and recurring motifs—such as faces and masks—to explore the complexity of the self in relation to the collective. His work addresses themes of diaspora, resistance, and belonging, offering a visual dialogue on freedom, equity, and the emotional weight of displacement. Each piece is a personal and political act of witness: to beauty, to injustice, and to the resilience of the human spirit.

 

A recipient of the prestigious Catherine Bratty Award for Best of Art Fair at the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair (2020), Kando’s work has been exhibited in major group and solo exhibitions across Canada, the U.S., and internationally, including the Musée des Beaux-Arts du Québec, Art Mûr, and the Centre culturel Georges-Vanier. His recent participatory projects, including at INSAAC in Côte d’Ivoire, speak to his belief in art as a shared, transformative experience.

Through both his studio practice and curatorial work, Kando continues to shape conversations around cultural memory and identity, offering urgent perspectives on our contemporary world. His work is held in numerous private and institutional collections across North America.

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