The global art world was sent on a shock wave as Koyo Kouoh, a Cameroonian curator who had been a backbone to many exhibitions of African contemporary art in the past decades died at 57. Her death comes just a few months after being appointed the curator of the 2026 Venice Bienniale making her the second African-born curator to lead the storoes exhibition, following late Okwui Enwezor’s groundbreaking edition in 2015.
died on Saturday in Basel, Switzerland. She was 57.
Her death, in a hospital was by the organisers of Venice Bienniale Her husband, Philippe Mall, said the cause was cancer, which was diagnosed just recently.
The biennale said that Ms. Kouoh’s “sudden and untimely” death came just days before she was scheduled to announce the title and theme of next year’s event. The statement added that her death “leaves an immense void in the world of contemporary art.”
Kouoh was widely admired for her uncompromising curatorial voice and her commitment to expanding the global narrative of contemporary art beyond the US and Europe. She was executive director and chief curator of the Zeitz Museumof Contemporary African Art (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, South Africa- an institution she helped shape into a critical platform for artists from across the continent and its diaspora.
Her death is a profound loss for the art world- particularly for the many artists, curators and institutions who looked to her as both mentor and model. She would have been the first female African to curate Venice Bienniale.
Koyo Kouoh has been the founding Artistic Director of RAW Material Company, a centre for art, knowledge and society in Dakar, Senegal, as well as part of the curatorial teams for Documenta 12 (2007) and Documenta 13 (2012). Kouoh is the recipient of the Grand Prix Meret Oppenheim 2020, the Swiss Grand Award for Art that honours achievements in the fields of art, architecture, critique, and exhibitions. She lives and works alternately in Cape Town, South Africa; Dakar, Senegal; and Basel, Switzerland.
