Koyo Kouoh and Naomi Beckwith Take on New Curatorial Roles; Maheder Haileselassie Tadesse Wins Main Prize at Rencontres de Bamako; Spotlighting Sarah Ama Duah's Sculptural Practice
Hello all,
It has been a pleasure to share African Art news from across the world with you. This is our final newsletter for the year 2024, which we must say has been an incredibly eventful year. This year, we reported on prizes, festivals, biennials, and the ever dynamic art market. We also spotlighted artists of African origin whose work and practice piqued our interest, while sharing solo and group art shows that were on view all over the world with you.
Thank you for your time and support. Thank you for reading Omenai Insider.
Happy holidays to you and your loved ones!
Now, on to the art news at hand:
Koyo Kouoh Appointed Curator of the Biennale Arte 2026
Cameroonian Swiss curator, Koyo Kouoh has been appointed the Director of the Visual Arts Department, with the specific task of curating the 61st International Art Exhibition to be held in 2026. This makes her the first African woman to curate the biennial in history.
Koyo Kouoh is currently the Executive Director and Chief Curator of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, a role she has held since 2019. Prior to this appointment, she was the founding Artistic Director of RAW Material Company, a centre for art, knowledge and society in Dakar, Senegal, as well as part of the curatorial teams for documenta 12 (2007) and documenta 13 (2012). Kouoh is the recipient of the Grand Prix Meret Oppenheim 2020, the Swiss Grand Award for Art that honours achievements in the fields of art, architecture, critique, and exhibitions.
Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, president of the Venice Biennale’s board, he comments:
“The appointment of Koyo Kouoh as the director of the Visual Arts Sector is the acknowledgment of a broad horizon of vision at the dawn of a day profuse with new words and eyes. Her perspective as a curator, scholar, and influential public figure meets with the most refined, young, and disruptive intelligences. With her here in Venice, La Biennale confirms what it has offered the world for over a century: to be the home of the future”.
Koyo Kouoh says:
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime honor 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.”
Naomi Beckwith Appointed Curator of Documenta 16
Naomi Beckwith has been announced as the artistic director of Documenta 16, which is set to take place in Kassel in 2027. Selected by a group of art experts, including independent curator N‘Goné Fall, appointed to a six-person Finding Committee to search for artistic director of Documenta 16 earlier this year, Beckwith becomes the first Black woman to curate the German quinquennial since its founding in 1955.
Naomi Beckwith is currently Deputy Director and Jennifer & David Stockman Chief Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation in New York where she oversees collections, exhibitions, publications, curatorial programs, and archives and provides strategic direction within the international network of affiliate museums. Beckwith has been a visiting professor at Northwestern University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (both Chicago, US). She has received fellowships at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program (New York) and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia (US). Beckwith was awarded the 2024 David C. Driskell Prize in African American Art and Art History by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta (US). She is also currently leading the curatorial team at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, on their Fall 2025 exhibitions, known as the “American Season”.
“It is the honor of a lifetime to be selected as artistic director for Documenta 16,” Beckwith says in a statement. “Documenta is an institution that belongs to the entire world, as much as it belongs to Kassel, as well as an institution that is in perpetual dialogue with history as much as it is a barometer of art and culture in the immediate present. I am humbled by the breadth of this responsibility and equally excited to share my research and ideas with this storied and generous institution: one that affords space and time for focus, deep study, exploration, experimentation, and awakenings for artists, curators, and audiences alike.”
Yilmaz Dziewior, Director of Museum Ludwig in Cologne, and Mami Kataoka, Director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, spoke on behalf of the six-person Finding Committee, explaining the decision:
“It was not easy to reach a decision. Our discussions reflected the complexity and entanglement of the current situation of documenta. We are convinced by Naomi Beckwith’s expertise and international curatorial experience. Her proposal for documenta 16 addresses artistic practices that give us tools to think possible futures together”.
Maheder Haileselassie Tadesse Wins Main Prize at Rencontres de Bamako
Ethiopian artist Maheder Haileselassie Tadesse was awarded the prestigious Seydou Keita Grand Prize for her evocative work exploring themes of memory and time at Rencontres de Bamako (Bamako Encounters).
Growing up, Tadesse read Ethiopian history in her father’s books, developing a deep connection to her country’s proud heritage of 3,000 years and resistance to colonization. Her project reflects this cultural inclination toward remembrance while addressing the complexities of modern Ethiopian identity.
Other prizes were awarded. Wilfried Vanie alias Willow Evann (Côte d’Ivoire/France) received the Bisi Silva Award for his powerful works that honor forgotten histories and marginalized collective identities, while Nigerian photographer Victor Adewale (Nigeria) earned the third prize for his project Ẹbí Ọlọ́́kadà, a compelling exploration of the lives of Okada riders in Mushin, Lagos.
Biennale Africaine de la Photographie also announced three honorable mentions awarded to Seyba Keita (Mali), Dior Thiam (Senegal/Germany), and John Moussa Kalapo (Mali) for their compelling and resonant contributions to contemporary photography.
Sana Na N’Hada and Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi Receives Prince Claus Impact Award
The Prince Claus Fund announces the six recipients of the second Prince Claus Impact Award. Ghanaian multidisciplinary artist Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi and Guinea-Bissau-born filmmaker Sana Na N’Hada have been honoured as recipients whose contributions to art and culture engage their communities in innovative and impactful ways while addressing urgent contemporary issues.
With a monetary prize and an emphasis on meaningful social engagement, the Prince Claus Impact Awards stand out as one of the most prestigious recognitions in the realm of arts and culture. The dedication and commitment demonstrated by this year’s recipients in addressing pressing political concerns deserve global recognition and celebration.
Artist Spotlight: Sarah Ama Duah
Sarah Ama Duah (b. 1989) is an Afro-German artist based in Berlin who explores the relationship between body and sculpture. Examining spaces of discrepancy, her practice explores the dynamics that animate grand narrations of history and their relation to material and immaterial memory cultures. In her artistic work, Duah practices sculptural appreciation as performance, gesture, form and potential.
Her project, Duah’s Daffodils for Feast Day (2023/24) engages the various artistic representations of Völkerfreundschaft (‘friendship between peoples’) that populated the cities of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and that remain visible today. These sculptures, while varied in figuration and technique, were attempts to memorialize the state’s policies while also propagating the role of art as a function of producing public space. Beyond the major stories of solidarity between nation states—consolidated as contractual agreements or geopolitical alliances — Duah insists on highlighting the intimate, the complicated, the obscured, and the untold.
On view:
Proper Love: The Belvedere is hosting Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo's first museum show in Europe. (October 25, 2024 - January 12, 2025).
Zvakazarurwa: Kettle’s Yard presents new and recent works by Zimbabwean artist Portia Zvavahera's first solo exhibition at a public gallery in Europe. (October 22, 2024 – February 16, 2025).
The Studio – Staging Desire: Featuring never-before-seen works from the late Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s wider practice at Autograph’s gallery in East London. (October 31, 2024 – March 22, 2025).
Stay connected on Instagram.