LAMAMIMET

Koyo Kouoh was born on 24 December 1967 in Douala, Cameroon, and spent her teenage years in Zurich, Switzerland, where she studied business administration, banking, and cultural management. Fluent in several languages, she moved to Dakar in the mid‑1990s, where she began a career curating contemporary African art and co‑edited a German‑language anthology of African women writers.

In Dakar, Kouhou founded the RAW Material Company, an artist residency and exhibition space that became a leading platform for African and diaspora artists. She served as curatorial adviser for Documenta 12 and 13 and contributed to major biennials, including the Dakar Biennale and Les Rencontres de la Photographie Africaine in Bamako. From 2019, she directed the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, positioning the institution at the forefront of Pan‑African contemporary art.

Kouoh was widely recognized as one of Africa’s most influential curators, appearing repeatedly on ArtReview’s list of the 100 most influential people in the contemporary art world. In 2025, she was appointed artistic director of the 2026 Venice Biennale, a role she could not assume due to her sudden death in May 2025. Her legacy endures through the institutions she shaped and the many artists she championed.