by Daniel Johnson
Might 11, 2025
Kouoh’s husband, Phillipe Mall, stated that his spouse died of most cancers, which she had solely not too long ago been identified with.
Koyo Kouoh, the influential Cameroonian curator who grew to become a robust advocate for Black artists globally, died unexpectedly on Might 10 in Basel, Switzerland—simply days earlier than she was scheduled to disclose the theme for the 2026 Venice Biennale. In 2024, she made historical past as the primary African lady chosen to curate the world’s most prestigious artwork exhibition.
Based on The New York Occasions, Kouoh’s husband, Phillipe Mall, stated his spouse died of most cancers, which she had solely not too long ago been identified with.
A press launch from the organizers of the Venice Biennale referred to the dying of Kouoh as an “immense void” within the artwork world they usually prolonged their heartfelt condolences and sympathies to Kouoh’s associates, household, and contemporaries.
“Koyo Kouoh labored with ardour, mental rigor and imaginative and prescient on the conception and growth of the Biennale Arte 2026. The presentation of the Exhibition’s title and theme was attributable to happen in Venice on 20 Might,” the organizers wrote.
They continued, “Her passing leaves an immense void on the planet of up to date artwork and within the worldwide group of artists, curators, and students who had the privilege of understanding and admiring her extraordinary human and mental dedication.”
Kouoh had established a popularity as a torchbearer for Black artists from Africa, however she herself thought-about her ambitions as a curator to be world in nature, and along with this, her work in revitalizing Cape City’s Zeitz MOCAA, guiding it by means of the pandemic following a disaster of management, earned her accolades from not simply friends, however artists who by no means felt welcomed by the establishment up to now.
Kouoh additionally staged plenty of acclaimed reveals and artwork exhibitions, one in every of which was a Tracey Rose retrospective that was transferred to the Queens Museum in New York in 2024, and one other, “When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Portray,” one other retrospective that included work by 120 Black artists which opened in February 2025 at Brussels’ Middle for Positive Arts the place it’ll stay till Aug. 10.
As Emily LaBarge, the Occasions’ artwork critic wrote of the exhibition in a overview, “Her contribution, “When We See Us,” adapts its title from Ava DuVernay’s 2019 Netflix mini-series in regards to the Central Park 5, a gaggle of Black and Latino youngsters who have been wrongfully accused of rape and assault. However the place DuVernay’s story of violence and brutality had “They” — “When They See Us” — Kouoh has “We,” pointing to the significance of Black self-expression, or the power to inform one’s personal story. The artwork on present right here doesn’t solely exist in relation to oppression or otherness, but additionally by itself expansive, continuously attractive, phrases.”
Based on Oluremi C. Onabanjo, an affiliate curator of images on the Museum of Trendy Artwork, Kouoh was an establishment builder, not only a curator.
“I believed it was superb that she was not only a curator however an establishment builder. A worldwide thinker, rooted in Africa.” Kouoh, she stated, “enlivened and expanded a way of risk for a era of African curators throughout the globe.”
Kouoh, judging by her personal phrases, agreed with Onabanjo’s evaluation, saying in a 2023 interview that “I’m a part of that era of African artwork professionals who’ve pleasure and information about the fantastic thing about African tradition, which has typically been outlined by others in so many mistaken methods. I don’t consider we have to spend time correcting these narratives. We have to inscribe different views.”
Kouoh is survived by her husband, Mall, a son, Djibril Schmed, her mom, Agnes Steidl, and her stepfather, Anton Steidl, and she’s going to undoubtedly be mourned and remembered by the broader artwork group and artists throughout the globe for the alternatives she afforded to vary how the artwork world approached artwork by Black artists throughout her lifetime.
RELATED CONTENT: 9 Black Galleries That Amplify Black Artwork
