Koyo Kouoh passed away at the age of 57 and is one of the leading figures in the art world and a fierce advocate for creatives in Africa.

Kouoh is a Cameroon-born curator who has been at the peak of his career.

She was supposed to be the first African woman to lead next year’s Venice Biennale, one of the most prestigious contemporary art events in the world and led one of Africa’s largest museums of contemporary art.

The cause of Kuo's accidental death has not been made public. The curator reportedly died in Switzerland.

South African artist Candice Breitz describes Kouoh as "smart, vibrant, vibrant elegance".

Nigerian visual artist Otobong Nkanga called the late curator a source of “warmness, generosity and glory.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also spoke about Kouoh's influence and said she passed "a gap in the contemporary art world".

Kouoh's colorful life began in 1967 when she was born in Cameroon, a Central African country with a rich artistic heritage.

She grew up in Douala, the country's largest city, before moving to Switzerland, 13.

There, she studied business administration and banking, but at critical moments she chose not to be a career.

"I'm not interested in profits at all," she explained in a 2023 interview with The New York Times.

Instead of building a foundation on her degree, Kouoh assisted immigrant women as social workers and began to immerse themselves in the art world.

She gave birth to a son in Switzerland in the 1990s, which was what she called a "deeply transformative" experience. She will continue to adopt the other three children.

Life in the Swiss city of Zurich was tired of returning to Africa in 1996.

Before founding a vast independent art hub raw materials company, she worked as a curator in Dakar, the capital of Senegal.

Just last week, she served as director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art in South Africa for six years, Kouoh reflected her love for Dakar.

“Dakar makes me who I am today,” she told the Financial Times.

"This is where I'm professional, I'm really a curator and an exhibition maker...I'm in Cape Town now, but spiritually, I live in Dakar. It's the only place I'm here."

When Kouoh held the top job at Zeitz, the largest museum of contemporary art in Africa, the institution was in crisis.

Founding director Mark Coetzee was suspended in 2018 after accusing employees of harassment and subsequent resignation.

Kouoh was widely praised for turning Zeitz's fate, leading to the scandal as well as Covid Pandemic.

She told the art world: “For me, the responsibility to save this institution is a responsibility: What if…? Podcast.

“I firmly believe that if it fails, Zeitz’s failure will be the failure of all African art professionals in the field, in some way indirectly.”

As Zeitz's director and curator, Kouoh oversees many famous exhibitions, including when we see us: the black image in paintings. The show brings together works by black artists from the last century and is currently on display in Brussels.

Zeitz expressed "deep sadness" in a statement announcing Kouoh's "sudden" death and said that the museum will be closed out in respect of the situation until further notice.

In a Financial Times interview last week, Cuo raised a challenge that death would end her efforts.

“I do believe in life after death because I come from our ancestors’ education that we believe in parallel life and reality,” she said.

"There is no 'after death' or 'in life' after death'. It doesn't matter. I believe in energy - life or death - cosmic power."