Born in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jean Wetshodima Olongo, known as Wetsho, has been drawing since childhood. Trained at the Kinshasa School of Fine Arts, he gradually moved away from realistic painting to develop, from 2023 onwards, an abstract practice deeply rooted in his spirituality.
His works, populated by hybrid figures and mysterious presences, explore the relationships between the visible and invisible worlds. Painting directly with his fingers, without a brush, he regards the canvas as a space for the manifestation of spiritual energies.
In this interview with Art Kelen, he reflects on his career, his creative process and the place that painting occupies in his life.
You started drawing at a very young age, from the age of 9. What memories do you have of your earliest artistic experiences? At what point did you realise that painting would play an important role in your life?
The memories I have of my earliest artistic experiences are both vivid and revealing of my passion for drawing. At the time, my parents often told me off, as they felt I was becoming too distracted, constantly absorbed in drawing. I devoted so much time and concentration to it that I would sometimes forget everything around me. There were even times when my drawings on paper were torn up and I was sometimes hit because of this passion that my parents did not yet understand.
I truly realised that painting would play an important role in my life at the age of 12, when I completed my first oil portrait on canvas, long before I enrolled at art school. What made a particular impression on me was that I’d managed to do it without anyone having taught me how to prepare or stretch a canvas, mix colours, apply paint or work on the shades. I created this piece on my own, without any prior instruction, letting my instinct guide me.
At that time, people who came across my paintings would often tell me that I was cut out to be an artist. Their words, combined with this natural ability I was discovering within myself, gradually strengthened my conviction that painting was not merely a hobby, but a true calling.
In 2023, you moved away from realistic painting towards a more abstract and spiritual approach. What prompted this change in your practice?
In 2023, after obtaining my state diploma in painting and enrolling at the Academy of Fine Arts, I felt the need to develop my own artistic language, to set myself apart and to create works that no one could reproduce exactly.
This evolution was also deeply fuelled by my relationship with the invisible, which guided me through my dreams and gradually revealed a new way of approaching painting.
This is how I came to adopt a more abstract and spiritual form of expression, in which my imagination, intuition and inner experiences play a vital role.
Your work explores invisible forces, emotions and the spiritual dimensions of existence. How do these elements take shape in your paintings?
I convey these dimensions through colours, abstract forms, textures and the contrasts between light and darkness. Each element expresses an energy, an emotion or an invisible reality that I seek to make perceptible.
My paintings often arise from my dreams, my intuition and my spiritual experiences. The canvas thus becomes a bridge between the visible and the invisible worlds, allowing the viewer to perceive what cannot always be explained in words.
Dreams and meditation play an important role in your creative process. Can you tell us how a piece comes into being, from the initial intuition right through to its completion?
When an idea comes to me to depict an invisible reality, energies or the influence of the visible and invisible worlds, I enter directly into contact with the invisible.
It responds to me, either through a dream or a vision, showing me how I should depict on the canvas what I wish to convey.
Your paintings often feature hybrid figures, somewhere between human and abstract forms. What do these figures represent to you?
To me, these figures represent the primordial forms of certain invisible creatures, as they exist in their own world.
You have chosen to paint directly with your fingers, without using brushes. How did you come to adopt this technique, and what does it bring to your relationship with the canvas?
For me, the canvas is a surface for expression. The choice to paint directly with my fingers came about naturally, out of a desire to establish direct spiritual contact with the canvas, without any intermediary.
This technique allows me to pour my positive spiritual energy onto the canvas in a direct and raw manner, making my gesture an immediate extension of that energy.
Colour and texture feature prominently in your works. How do you choose your colours? Do they have a particular meaning, or do you let your intuition guide you?
The choice of colours is dictated directly by the invisible, and my role is to reproduce what is revealed to me.
I mainly use colour to activate or set the energies in my works in motion. Certain colours also have specific meanings, which form part of the spiritual language of my painting.
You studied at the Kinshasa School of Fine Arts. What influence did this training – and, more broadly, the Kinshasa art scene – have on your career?
My training at the Kinshasa School of Fine Arts enabled me to acquire technical foundations and to better understand the demands of painting. However, I gradually felt the need to move beyond academic approaches in order to develop my own artistic language, based on abstraction and spirituality.
The Kinshasa art scene has also allowed me to observe certain actions that people take out of ignorance, without always realising their impact on the invisible world. These observations gave me a further reason to address them through my works, in order to highlight the links between our actions in the visible world and their repercussions in the invisible.
Your painting seems to be as much an artistic endeavour as a personal quest. Has painting changed the way you understand yourself or view the world?
Painting has taught me not to judge people by their appearances. It has also led me to maintain a positive and upright conduct, so as to set an example in the physical world.
If you had to choose one work that particularly well represents your artistic world and your current approach, which would it be and why?
*Magnus Magister* represents the sovereignty of the Grand Master of the invisible realm of the waters, to whom I wished to pay homage through this work.
At the centre of the composition stands a creature, half-human, half-shark, holding a yellow trident, a symbol of his authority and kingship. Surrounding it, aquatic figures represent the invisible entities of this realm, gathered around their sovereign. The blue evokes the element of water, whilst the black background symbolises mystery and the invisible world.
This work holds a special place in my artistic and spiritual journey. I believe its creation was guided by the Great King himself. For me, it represents a deep connection with the invisible world and remains one of my most sacred creations.