After Koyo Kouoh died suddenly in May 2025, she left more than an immense void in the hearts of those who knew the visionary curator. Kouoh, chief curator of the 61st Venice Biennale, had also led the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in South Africa since 2019. This week, the Cape Town institution entered a new chapter with the appointment of Elvira Dyangani Ose as artistic director.
Starting this fall, the Spanish curator will bring her expertise in modern and contemporary African art and her vision of meeting artists where they’re at. “I’ll go to Johannesburg, or Accra, or Kumasi, or Nairobi,” she said in a 2017 interview. “I will meet the people there and try to understand the context of their works.” Staff Writer Rhea Nayyar has the story.
Also today, SF Camerawork is the latest San Francisco arts organization to close, to the surprise of some in its community, reports Associate Editor Phillip Pyle, and Brian Karl reviews a Hammer Museum exhibition of works that incorporate “living materials,” from avocado and cacao to achiote and natural dyes.
—Valentina Di Liscia, senior editor
“American Doctor” Is an Indictment of US Leadership and Media
In a new documentary on Gaza, three humanitarian physicians from the United States navigate the horrors of genocide as they struggle to treat civilians in a buckling, under-resourced hospital in Khan Younis.
Screening this week at the Angelika Film Center in Manhattan, journalist Poh Si Teng’s debut feature documentary American Doctor (2026) uses the physicians’ accounts as indisputable evidence of the cruelty inflicted on Gaza.
Urgently produced in one year with on-the-ground footage by the Gaza cinematography company Alef Multimedia, American Doctor premiered at the Sundance Film Festival only weeks after its completion, and has since been acquired by Watermelon Pictures for distribution. | Rhea Nayyar
News
- Elvira Dyangani Ose will succeed Koyo Kouoh as the artistic director of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa.
- The San Francisco photography organization SF Camerawork abruptly announces its closure after 52 years.
From Our Critics
The Living World Feels Dead at the Hammer
“Several Eternities” feels overly careful and unable to combust as fully as it could have. | Brian Karl
Community
Remembering Christian Bernard, Al Gury, and Hermione Carline
This week, we honor the founding museum director, an artist who shaped PAFA, and a painter of transience.
Member Comment
—Christopher Pelham on “The Miscarriage Collages That Were Too Much for the Art World”
From the Archive
Remembering the Women of the Black Panther Party
Comrade Sisters centers photographs and personal accounts of the women who made up over two-thirds of the party. | Taylor Michael
The Bennett Prize – 2026/2027 Award Cycle
For women figurative realist painters. The grand prize winner receives $75,000 and a solo exhibition. The first runner-up receives $10,000. A five-person jury will select 10 finalists to be featured in a group exhibition that will travel the US. The application fee is $50. Read more on Hyperallergic.
Deadline: September 19, 2026 | thebennettprize.org
See more in this month’s list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers!
