The preeminent contemporary art museum in Africa, Zeitz MOCAA, is turning the dial on how African art is understood in the USA. Historically African and African American art has been talked about from a Eurocentric and US- lens, and the tenured museum Executive Director and Chief Curator Koyo Kouoh is boldly challenging this one-way exchange by rescripting how contemporary art from and about Africa is understood, presented, and included. The presence of the museum and its American Friends affiliate organization in Miami over Art Basel, including a cocktail hosted by friends and supporters Jorge and Darlene Pèrez alongside an announcement of the museum’s traveling exhibition program, is a testament to Kouoh’s strong support in the USA.
In August, The New York Times quoted Kouoh, “I want to show the expanse of culture, the vast history of how the continent and its diaspora inhabits the world.” Responsible for founding Raw Material the renowned nonprofit in Senegal in 2008, Kouoh is determined to bolster creativity about Africa from the continent. At Zeitz MOCAA her program offers overlooked African artists their first solo exhibitions and she challenges the status quo of how Africa-inspired, including African American and other diasporic creativity, is represented. She does this through global speaking engagements, investing in education and content-rich publications to accompany the museum’s dynamic exhibition program. In 2024, the museum’s acclaimed exhibition “When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting” travels to Kuntsmuseum Basel as a feature during Art Basel, and later to Sweden before reaching American soil with a showcase at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in 2025. More than 200 artworks on loan from African and American collectors alike, are shown together.
The museum is also making impact through American Friends of Zeitz MOCAA, an 501c3 organization led by a luminary board of directors including founding members, renowned filmmaker Liesl Tommy as President celebrated for her Aretha Franklin Respect biopic, and film director Roger Ross Williams as secretary who’s latest The Super Models series debuted on Apple TV just as his groundbreaking film Cassandro hit theaters. American Friends also boasts major collectors as supporters including Jorge and Darlene Pèrez, Sarah Arison, Tracey and Phillip Riese as well as artists Julie Mehretu and Wangechi Mutu, among others—who see the museum, and Kouoh’s vision, as vital to the continent and the global dialogue of African-orientated artwork. The organization’s burgeoning member program has also attracted American curators and art professionals interested in deeper connections with the continent.
