FAREWELL TO KOYO KOUOH, CURATOR OF THE 2026 VENICE BIENNALE
Koyo Kouoh, the renowned Cameroonian-Swiss curator and a key figure in contemporary African art, has died at the age of 58. Since 2019, she had served as executive director and chief curator of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, which confirmed her passing. The Venice Biennale expressed deep sorrow over the loss and highlighted her intellectual and human legacy.
Kouoh was appointed in December 2024 as the curator of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, scheduled to open on May 9, 2026. She was the first African woman to lead the Biennale’s main exhibition—a decision widely praised as a gesture toward a more inclusive and expansive global art perspective. The announcement of the exhibition’s title and theme was set to take place on May 20.
According to the Biennale, she worked on the project “with passion, intellectual rigor, and vision.” Her appointment had been welcomed across the art world, recognizing her critical engagement, Pan-African perspective, and strong curatorial voice centered on feminism and decolonial thought.
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Koyo Kouoh. Cortesía de la Bienal de Venecia
Born in Cameroon in 1967 and raised in Switzerland, Kouoh built a distinguished career that positioned her as an international reference. Throughout her trajectory, she curated exhibitions, publications, and programs focused on artists from the Global South, often addressing urgent themes of representation, colonial history, and gender. In 2020, she was awarded Switzerland’s prestigious Meret Oppenheim Grand Prize.
Her sudden passing halts a curatorial process that had generated high expectations—not only because of her reputation but also for the vision she brought: a critical, nuanced, and rooted approach to global contemporary art.
The international art community mourns her loss as an irreplaceable one. Kouoh leaves behind a lasting legacy—not only through the institutions she led, but also through the networks of artists, curators, and thinkers who found in her a committed and illuminating voice.
*Cover image: Koyo Kouoh attends a conference at the New Africa-France Summit in Montpellier, France, Friday, Oct. 8, 2021. (Sarah Meyssonnier/Pool Photo via AP, File).
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