Koyo Kouoh, a Prominent African Art Figure Dies at 57

Koyo Kouoh, a Cameroonian and a prominent figure in the contemporary art world, who had been slated to oversee the Venice Biennale is dead.

Koyo Kouoh, a Cameroonian and a prominent figure in the contemporary art world, who had been slated to oversee the Venice Biennale event in 2026 as the first African woman to hold such a helm, is dead. She passed away at 57 on Saturday in Basel, Switzerland. According to her husband, Philip Mall, the cause of death was cancer.

Following Kouoh's death, the Venice Biennale's organisers released a statement, revealing she was scheduled to announce the title and theme of the next year's event a few days after her death. In a tribute recognising her impact, her death was regarded as an immense void in the world of contemporary art.

Despite thriving on the narrative as an international curator, Kouoh's impact on reshaping and restructuring African art is deeply engraved on stone. She reportedly transformed the Zeitz MOCAA Museum, one of Africa’s largest contemporary art museums, which was once in crisis. She also staged several art shows, including a Tracey Rose retrospective which was eventually transferred to the Queens Museum in New York and “When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting”.

Ms. Kouoh founded Raw Material, an artist residency programme that featured an exhibition space, a library and an academy that offered a mentoring programme for young art professionals. She was also named one of the 100 most influential people in the contemporary art world by ArtReview.

Reflecting on her impact, Emily LaBarge, described her curational approach in a review of “When We See Us” for The New York Times as “sophisticated breadth” that was “both aesthetic and art historical, painterly and political”.

In a 2023 interview, she stated:

"I am part of that generation of African art professionals who have pride and knowledge about the beauty of African culture, which has often been defined by others in so many wrong ways.

I don’t believe we need to spend time correcting those narratives. We need to inscribe other perspectives.”

At Pawners Paper, we recognize Koyo Kouoh as a cartographer of Black expression, mapping and reshaping the contours of African contemporary arts.

We honor the echoes of her legacy.