Artist Masela Nkolo Awakens African Heritage by Blending Classical + Contemporary Themes
03/05/2026
PHOTO
BY BRIAN CARR
Masela Nkolo comes from a place that most people reading this story would struggle to identify on a map. His experiences growing up were vastly different from anything the majority of Americans could comprehend. But the artistic movement he helped create is commanding attention in the way it celebrates his heritage and sparks change.
We sat down with Masela to discuss his journey to the Atlanta arts scene from a village in the Congo, and how his work brings awareness to the urgent issues shaping his culture. Read more.
The Lantern’s Shadow
In the final years of the Mobutu dictatorship that crippled the Democratic Republic of Congo, there was no electricity or water in Masela Nkolo’s village.
Living at home as a child, Nkolo recalled a time when he was battling malaria, and experienced a fever dream one night that changed his life. He saw the family’s oil lamp – the only source of light they had – casting an eerie shadow on the wall. The shape it made looked to him like a giant African mask, imposing and frightening. He cried out, and his mother rushed to him. As he told her what he had seen, she said “I rebuke this in the name of Jesus.”
Nkolo never forgot about his encounter, and still wonders if the hallucination was his African ancestors calling out to him.
He found his emerging talent for drawing pictures as a six-year-old. At his elementary school, Nkolo’s classroom lacked enough books for students to use. There was no printer. No photocopier. So it was common for several children to huddle around one book in order to learn anything. Nkolo’s teacher took note of his drawing abilities. She would ask him to copy images from the lesson book onto the blackboard so all the students could follow her lessons.
His innate ability to work with his hands also became evident when Nkolo accidentally broke the household’s lamp when he went out one afternoon to buy oil to refill it. The family only had one lamp. He was determined to figure out how to fix it, so he stayed up late to work on it.
“Before we can fix things, sometimes we need to break them,” Nkolo said. “The more you make mistakes, the more you can learn.”
Before long, many of his neighbors around Kinshasa started coming to him to ask for help with fixing their lamps as well. Nkolo’s father started talking with him about his future and asked what he wanted to study.
“My father said, ‘I want you to be free to do whatever you want, because I was never free to choose,’” Nkolo said.
He explained that the colonial system in which his father grew up meant that a man’s career path was decided for him by the government. But as times changed, Nkolo had more freedom to decide his own path. He visited a brother who worked as an architect and a sculptor, and flipped through the pages of his brother’s books about art. The experience opened up the possibility of pursuing a career as an artist, and Nkolo enrolled in arts school.
Lessons in Other People’s Art
As Nkolo describes his arts education experience, Belgium’s colonial influences over the Congo dictated what was taught to students. The curriculum was heavy on European art and techniques. Students learned about Picasso and other European icons. But only a sliver of the teaching discussed African and Congolese art.
By the time he was a high school senior, Nkolo started questioning what he was learning. Why wasn’t there more being taught about his own country’s artists?
Something was missing. Nkolo said his friends and classmates felt it, too. So a number of them dropped out of school because they did not see connections to their own story. That’s when they decided to create their own art movement, and awaken their Congolese compatriots.
The Rise of a New Arts Movement
Nkolo went to villages around the Congo to visit other artists. He asked them questions that dug deep into the fundamentals of African and Congolese art. And he thought about how to pull something new out of them. From there, the Neo-Ngongism art movement was born.
The name refers to the Catholic church bells that are present in villages and towns across the continent. Nkolo describes it as a metaphor to wake his people up, and raise awareness of both their proud history and the urgent challenges facing the Congo.
But Nkolo and his friends found that government institutions, museums and art galleries were not supportive of what they were creating. Officials perceived the undertones of activism in the works the Neo-Ngongists were creating as a threat. That’s how streets and public spaces became essential as a forum to share their artistic expression and awaken communities.
“We started bringing art outside,” Nkolo said. “We created all kinds of art to carry our message, from performances and music to dancing and painting on the street.”
The artists used reclaimed objects and discarded items to build sculptures and carry a message warning against the dangers of pollution. They created stories that retold pieces of their history that had been lost. They encouraged people to demand freedom and invite change.
According to Nkolo, the government began arresting artists out of fear that the art movement would lead to rebellion. So, he and his colleagues changed their tactics. They would wait until nightfall to put out new art installations on the streets, and then people would be surprised in the mornings when they left their homes to see new messages.
“I feel like my art can be used like a weapon to change people’s mindset,” Nkolo said. “It’s not just art for fun. We can teach people things through art and create change.”
A New Start in Atlanta
Nkolo’s father believed the best gift anyone can receive is the opportunity to travel. To experience another part of the world that can change a person and open their mind. Nkolo’s opportunity came when relatives in America invited him to come over. They were relocating from New York City to Atlanta for a job opportunity with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The move would mean Nkolo would have to learn English. But he had a place to live rent-free and work on growing his arts practice. So, he seized the opportunity, found work as a welder, diligently saved his money for many years, and then struck out on his own as a full-time artist.
Nkolo entered several juried arts competitions in the South and started getting recognized.
He was recently awarded the Juror's Choice Award at the MOCA GA Biennial, a show surveying Georgia’s artist, and has received prestigious accolades such as the ArtFields Award in 2023 and 2024. His work has been exhibited at notable venues, including Johnson Lowe Gallery (GA), Agora Gallery (NY), The Mint Museum (NC), Atlanta Contemporary (GA), Path Museum (GA), and ArtFields (SC).
“Atlanta feels like home,” he said. “Because the people around me are what make the city. It’s not the city that makes the people.”
The Screwdriver
Nkolo’s art brings together installation, sculpture, textiles and other elements. Visiting his studio space in Midtown is different because there are lots of tools laying around – drill press, circular saw, hammers, an adze, screwdrivers – and very few paintbrushes.
“My work is a bridge between African classical art and contemporary art,” he said. “I transform objects and find the stories behind them. They tell stories that move us across time, through changes and transformation.”
Nkolo held up a screwdriver with a blue handle and recounted a story.
During a violent civil war in the early-2000s, Congolese children like Nkolo carried screwdrivers to protect themselves when they went out. One day at school, a gun battle between warring factions broke out nearby. Nkolo rushed out to pick up his friend at another school a mile away and then get home. According to Nkolo, many schoolchildren died that day in the crossfire. And all they had to defend themselves against the machinery of war were screwdrivers.
“I started thinking about this screwdriver,” Nkolo said, “and I thought, ‘what if I could change the meaning of what this was used for?’”
In Congolese culture, the Nkisi statue provides personal protection, healing, or punishment of an enemy. The “Bibaaku” tradition suggests that to ask Nkisi for any of these things, a person hammers a nail into the statue to bind their agreement. The nails visible in the statue indicate the number of times it has been ritually summoned.
Nkolo represents this with his African masks that feature screwdrivers fanning out as an integral feature of the headdress. He said the Nkisi symbolism in the masks is about healing the mind, as the metal screwdrivers penetrate the wearer’s head.
His new body of work is inspired by his most recent trip home in 2021. Nkolo is working with large doors to represent passage, opportunities, and breaking through to overcome challenges. He is punching out sections of the door panel with a hammer to expose layers underneath. On the face, he is laying down swatches of fabrics made by women from the Kuba tribe, with a distinctive pattern that fashion designers have been known to misappropriate. These new works will be on view later this year at Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, PA.
A Space to Create Art in Midtown
Nkolo learned about Midtown Alliance’s artist residency program through another alumnus of the program, Masud Olufani (2022-24). The effort brings together property owners with available physical space and artists to create compelling work in Midtown that adds to the urban experience. The participating artists also help each other with technical advice and encouragement as they work to advance their practices.
Nkolo’s studio neighbor at All Saints Episcopal Church, Aysha Pennerman, was featured in a recent story. The two artists said they speak often and borrow each other’s tools. They are currently planning an Open Studio event that takes place March 14, where the community is invited in to meet them, learn about their processes, and see their work. Get details and RSVP to attend here.
Looking Ahead
The timeline of Nkolo's growth as an artist is marked by defining moments of uncommon resolve that have helped his arts practice evolve and flourish. Through it all, his journey has brought him closer to finding his true identity, and giving voice to the challenges in his home country. When asked about plans for the future, Nkolo said he may want to become an art teacher someday.
“You cannot teach art you see in a book,” he said. “You have to teach from your experience and what you see as an artist. That can be the most valuable transmission to the next generation.”
Follow Masela on Instagram at @arts_nkolo. Learn more about Midtown Alliance’s artist residency program here.