Koyo Kouoh, the curator of the 2026 Venice Art Biennale, has died at age 58, her home institution in South Africa said in an Instagram post Saturday.
The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town in South Africa confirmed the news overnight but gave no cause. The Biennale said it was "deeply saddened and dismayed" to learn of her death.
Kouoh was the first African woman asked to helm the Venice Art Biennale. Born in Cameroon in 1967, she was invited to curate the 2026 edition of the Biennale in December. A leading figure in promoting Pan-Africanism throughout the art world, Kouoh had been executive director and chief curator at Zeitz since 2019.
Appointed in December 2024 by the board of directors of La Biennale, Kouoh worked "with passion, intellectual rigor and vision on the conception and development of the Biennale Arte 2026," the Venice arts institution said.
The presentation of the exhibition's title and theme was due to take place in Venice on May 20.
Kouoh also increased her reputation by curating the pioneering 2022 exhibition "When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting." The show's title was inspired by the 2019 Netflix miniseries When They See Us by African-American director Ava DuVernay, which focuses on how Black youth are seen as potential criminals and thus as a threat.
"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 privilege of knowing and admiring her extraordinary human and intellectual commitment," the Biennale said.
It extended "its deepest sympathies and affection" to Kouoh's family and friends, and "all those who shared with her a journey of research and critical thought on contemporary art."
In a statement, Italy's Premier Giorgia Meloni expressed her "deepest condolences" for Kouoh's "premature and sudden passing," noting it "leaves a void in the world of contemporary art."
