Koyo Kouoh, curator of the 2026 Venice Biennale, has died at 57. https://ift.tt/TYlMfhX

Koyo Kouoh, the acclaimed curator and executive director of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, has died at 57. Her husband, Philippe Mall, said that the cause of death was cancer, according to the New York Times.

The Venice Biennale, which had appointed Kouoh as the curator of the 2026 Venice Biennale in December 2024, confirmed the news on Sunday. “La Biennale di Venezia is deeply saddened and dismayed to learn of the sudden and untimely passing of Koyo Kouoh,” the organization said in a statement. Kouoh had been working on the 61st edition of the prestigious international exhibition, with the presentation of its title and theme originally scheduled on May 20th. The organizers did not share further details of how the Biennale, which is the world’s most important art exhibition, planned to continue for its 2026 iteration.

Born in Cameroon and raised in Switzerland, Kouoh was widely recognized for her intellectual rigor and commitment to contemporary art from Africa and its global diaspora. Since joining the South African art museum Zeitz MOCAA in 2019, she led the institution through a critical phase of transformation, curating landmark exhibitions including “When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting” (2022), which later traveled to Kunstmuseum Basel.

Prior to her role at Zeitz MOCAA, Kouoh founded and led RAW Material Company in Dakar, and contributed to major international exhibitions including Documenta 12 and 13. Her curatorial voice shaped the Irish biennial EVA International in 2016 and the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair’s education program from 2013 to 2017.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Kouoh spoke about her spiritual beliefs: “I do believe in life after death because I come from an ancestral Black education where we believe in parallel lives and realities. There is no ‘after death,’ ‘before death,’ or ‘during life.’ It doesn’t matter that much. I believe in energies—living or dead—and in cosmic strength.”

The organisers of the Venice Biennale praised Kouoh’s “passion, intellectual rigor and vision,” noting that her death “leaves an immense void in the world of contemporary art.” On Instagram, artists posted tributes to this towering art world figure. South African artist Candice Breitz called Kouoh “magnificently intelligent” and “formidably elegant” in her condolences, while Kenyan British painter Michael Armitage wrote simply “Koyo.”

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/hC12z4X