Renowned Curator Koyo Kouoh Dies at 57, Leaving an Enduring Legacy in the Art World
Celebrated Cameroonian curator and cultural visionary Koyo Kouoh has passed away at age 57, marking a profound loss for the global art community. Kouoh died in Switzerland, where she had resided for years, though the cause of death has not been publicly disclosed.
At the height of her influential career, Kouoh was set to become the first African woman to lead the Venice Biennale in 2026 and had been serving as the Executive Director and Chief Curator of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) in South Africa—Africa’s largest contemporary art museum.
From Cameroon to Global Influence
Born in Douala, Cameroon, in 1967, Kouoh moved to Switzerland at age 13, where she initially studied business and banking. However, she pivoted from finance to pursue a career advocating for migrant women and eventually immersed herself in contemporary art—a field where she would become a global leader.
Kouoh gave birth to her first child in Switzerland in the 1990s and later adopted three more. Describing motherhood as “profoundly transformative,” she sought meaning beyond Western institutions, eventually returning to Africa in 1996 to pursue her curatorial passion.
Building Africa’s Art Future
Kouoh’s return to the continent marked a turning point. She launched Raw Material Company in Dakar, Senegal, an independent art hub that nurtured African artistic expression and critical discourse. She credited Dakar as her true creative home, saying, “Dakar made me who I am today.”
In 2019, Kouoh took the reins at Zeitz MOCAA following a leadership scandal and institutional crisis. She not only stabilized the museum but transformed it into a beacon of African contemporary culture, earning global acclaim for exhibitions such as When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting.
Tributes Pour In from Across the Globe
News of her death triggered an outpouring of grief and admiration:
- Candice Breitz, South African artist, described her as “magnificently intelligent, endlessly energetic and formidably elegant.”
- Nigerian visual artist Otobong Nkanga praised her “warmth, generosity, and brilliance.”
- Even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni acknowledged her passing, calling it a loss for the global art world.
Kouoh was also a trusted voice in cultural restitution. In 2021, she was invited by President Emmanuel Macron to contribute to dialogues on returning African artifacts from European museums.
Belief in Legacy Beyond Death
In one of her final interviews with the Financial Times, Kouoh reflected on mortality with a calm rooted in her African spiritual upbringing:
“I believe in energies—living or dead—and in cosmic strength. There’s no before or after death, just eternal presence.”
Zeitz MOCAA released a statement expressing “profound sorrow” and closed the museum temporarily in her honor.
A Trailblazer Who Redefined African Art’s Global Role
Koyo Kouoh’s death leaves a vacuum in the contemporary art world, but her work continues to shape how African creativity is viewed, valued, and preserved. Through every exhibition and institution she led, she championed authentic African narratives, empowering a generation of artists and curators to tell their stories unapologetically.
Her legacy is not only in the galleries she curated—but in the cultural future she fought to redefine.
