Groundbreaking Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh dies

Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh, the head of the top contemporary art museum in Africa and first African woman appointed to lead the Venice Biennale, has died Saturday, the Zeitz MOCAA museum said.

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Born in 1967, Kouoh had headed the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), in South Africa's Cape Town, since 2019.

She was chosen last year to curate the next Biennale — one of the world’s most important contemporary art shows — opening in May 2026.

The Zeitz MOCAA “received news in the early hours of this morning, of the sudden passing of Koyo Kouoh, our beloved executive director and chief curator”, the museum said on social media.

“Out of respect”, the museum’s programming will be “suspended until further notice”, it added.