Farewell to Koyo Kouoh, curator of the 2026 Art Biennale

Cameroonian art critic and Swiss citizen Koyo Kouoh , curator of the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, which will open on May 9, 2026, died suddenly today at the age of 58. The Biennale itself announced this, having learned "with deep sorrow and dismay the news of her sudden and premature passing." Her appointment as curator of next year's International Art Exhibition marked a historic moment, making her the first African woman to hold this prestigious position.

Appointed in December 2024 by the Board of Directors of the Biennale, Koyo Kouoh "worked with passion, rigor and vision to create the Biennale Arte 2026", reads a press release from the institution chaired by Pietrangelo Buttafuoco. The presentation of the title and theme of the 61st Exhibition should have taken place on May 20 in Venice. "Her passing leaves an immense void in the world of contemporary art and in the international community of artists, curators and scholars who had the opportunity to know and appreciate her extraordinary intellectual and human commitment - continues the press release - The entire Biennale di Venezia extends its affectionate embrace to her family, friends and all those who shared with her a path of research and critical thinking on contemporary art".

"I express my deepest condolences for the premature and sudden passing of Koyo Kouoh , curator of the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, on which she was working with great passion. Her passing leaves a void in the world of contemporary art : my closeness to her family, friends, collaborators and colleagues". Thus the President of the Council, Giorgia Meloni .

Kouoh has had a distinguished career in the international art scene, distinguishing herself for her commitment to the promotion of contemporary African art. Since 2019, she has served as executive director and chief curator of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz Mocaa) in Cape Town, South Africa.

Koyo Kouoh was born on January 1, 1967 in the coastal city of Douala, Cameroon, where she spent her childhood until the age of thirteen, when she moved with her family to Zurich, Switzerland. This move marked the beginning of an international journey that has profoundly influenced her curatorial vision and her commitment to promoting contemporary African art.

Koyo Kouoh has organized significant exhibitions such as Body Talk: Feminism, Sexuality and the Body in the Works of Six African Women Artists, which premiered at Wiels in Brussels, Belgium in 2015. She curated Still (the) Barbarians, the 37th Eva International, the Irish Biennial in Limerick in 2016, and participated in the 57th Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, with the extensively documented exhibition project Dig Where You Stand (2018), an exhibition within an exhibition, drawn from the collections of the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History. She curated the Education and Artistic Program of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London and New York from 2013 to 2017.

She initiated the research project "Saving Bruce Lee: African and Arab Cinema in the Era of Soviet Cultural Diplomacy," co-curated with Rasha Salti at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, Russia, and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Germany (2015-2018). Active in the critical field of the art community from a pan-African and international perspective, Kouoh has a long list of publications, including "When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting" (2022), released on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name opened at Zeitz Mocaa in November 2022; "Shooting Down Babylon" (2022), the first monograph on the work of South African artist Tracey Rose; "Breathing Out of School: Raw Académie" (2021); "Condition Report on Art History in Africa" ​​(2020); "Word!Word?Word! Issa Samb and The Undecipherable Form" (2013); and "Condition Report on Building Art Institutions in Africa" ​​(2012), to name a few. From 2013 to 2017, she served as Curator of the Education and Artistic Program of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London and New York, the first and only international art fair dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. During her tenure at Zeitz Mocaa, her curatorial work focused on in-depth solo exhibitions of artists from Africa and of African descent. In this context, she organized exhibitions with Otobong Nkanga, Johannes Phokela, Senzeni Marasela, Abdoulaye Konaté, Tracey Rose, and Mary Evans. (by Paolo Martini)