Koyo Kouoh will be the artistic director of the 61st Venice Biennale, due to open in April 2026.
Kouoh is currently the director of Cape Town’s Zeitz MOCAA, a position she has held since 2019 after establishing her name through the RAW Material Company in Senegal. Current shows at Zeitz include solos for Ghanaian-American artist Rita Mawuena Benissan and South African Nolan Oswald Dennis. Earlier this year, Kunstmuseum Basel opened When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, a survey exhibition curated by Kouoh that debuted at Zeitz. She has also previously taken part in the curatorial teams for documenta 12 (2007) and documenta 13 (2012).
‘The International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia has been the center of gravity for art for over a century. Artists, art and museum professionals, collectors, dealers, philanthropists and an ever-growing public converge on this mythical site every two years to feel the pulse of the Zeitgeist,’ Kouoh said in a statement. ‘It is a once-in-a-lifetime honour and privilege to follow in the footsteps of luminary predecessors in the role of Artistic Director, and to compose an exhibition that I hope will carry meaning for the world we currently live in – and most importantly, for the world we want to make. Artists are the visionaries and social scientists who allow us to reflect and project in ways afforded only to this line of work.’
The 61st Venice Biennale will be held from April – November 2026. Explore the growing list of pavilion announcements with our go-to list.
