Jochen Zeitz, the German businessman and former Puma chief executive who chairs the museum and is its namesake, stated that Dyangani Ose’s experience will build upon the foundation established during the museum’s first decade while expanding its artistic vision across exhibitions, research, collections, and public engagement with artists and audiences.
Ose assumes her new role on October 1, taking over from Kouoh, who joined Zeitz MOCAA in 2019. Respected by colleagues and staff, Kouoh is widely recognized for revitalizing a struggling institution and developing programs aimed at bridging deep social and class divides in Cape Town.
“The museum was in crisis when Koyo arrived, further complicated by the pandemic,” noted Storm Janse van Rensburg, then a senior curator at Zeitz MOCAA, in a 2023 interview with The New York Times. “The priority was to revive it.” She is largely credited with achieving this turnaround. At the time of her passing in May 2025, she also served as curator and artistic director for the 2026 Venice Biennale.
Born in Spain to a family of Equatorial Guinean heritage, Ose was named artistic director of the second edition of the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial in January, which opens on October 23. Prior to leading MACBA in Barcelona, she directed London’s Showroom, a nonprofit gallery dedicated to socially engaged art practices.
She has organized exhibitions featuring Theaster Gates, Carrie Mae Weems, Zanele Muholi, Betye Saar, Bouchra Khalili, and Sudanese painter Ibrahim El-Salahi. In 2006, while serving as a curator at the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno in the Canary Islands, Spain, she co-curated a showcase of 14 emerging South African artists.