Media release
Elvira Dyangani Ose Announced as Artistic Director of Zeitz MOCAA
Guiding the Museum’s Artistic Vision as It Enters Its Second Decade
(Cape Town, South Africa, Wednesday, 12 August 2026): Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) is delighted to announce that internationally respected museum leader and curator Elvira Dyangani Ose will join the Museum as its Artistic Director, effective from 1 October 2026.
Zeitz MOCAA Co-founder and Co-chair, David Green OBE, commented: ‘Following an extensive local and international search, the Board is delighted to welcome Elvira Dyangani Ose to Zeitz MOCAA. Dyangani Ose’s appointment reflects who we are as an institution—one rooted in Africa, while connected to the world. She will oversee the Museum’s curatorial vision and direction, leading the institution through its next chapter as it approaches its second decade—building on the late Koyo Kouoh's legacy, and honouring her extraordinary artistic vision and the institutional foundations she built.’
Adding to this, Jochen Zeitz, Zeitz MOCAA Co-founder and Co-chair said: ‘Dyangani Ose joins Zeitz MOCAA at a defining moment in our journey. As we approach our 10th anniversary, her appointment builds on the foundations laid in our first decade. She brings deep experience in institutional leadership and will expand the museum's artistic ambition—across exhibitions, research, collections, public engagement, and the way we work with artists and audiences.'
Dyangani Ose’s career spans leading institutions across Europe, Africa, and the United States. She has served as Director of Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) and The Showroom London and previously held curatorial roles at Tate Modern in London and Creative Time in New York. She is currently the Artistic Director of the second Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial (2026–2027). Combining a pan-African outlook with exceptional international experience, she is recognised for her artistic vision, institution building, collaborative leadership, and longstanding commitment to artists from Africa and its diaspora.
Commenting on her appointment, Elvira Dyangani Ose said: ‘It is a privilege to join Zeitz MOCAA. I am thrilled to come on board at this moment to continue its journey as a leading African institution with global reach. I look forward to working alongside the museum's remarkable team, artists, supporters, and the local and global communities, building upon its extraordinary foundation by fostering meaningful collaborations and artistic exchanges across cultures and geographies.’
Dyangani Ose's appointment marks a significant new chapter in the transformative journey of the institution. Zeitz MOCAA remains dedicated to producing and presenting cutting-edge contemporary exhibitions and art historical knowledge, enhancing the careers of Africa’s most talented artists in the 21st century and beyond, strengthening its education programmes, and ensuring access for all.
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Issued by Zeitz MOCAA Communications.
Notes to Editors
About Zeitz MOCAA
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) is a public not-for-profit institution that collects, preserves, researches, and exhibits contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora; conceives and hosts international exhibitions; develops supporting educational, discursive, and enrichment public programmes; encourages intercultural understanding; and ensures access for all.
The Museum’s galleries feature rotating temporary exhibitions, with dedicated space for the permanent collection. The institution also includes the BMW Centre for Art Education and the Koyo Kouoh Atelier, a museum residency programme for artists living and working in Cape Town.
Zeitz MOCAA, situated at the Silo District, South Arm Road, V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa, is open Monday through Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm (last entry at 5:30 pm). zeitzmocaa.museum
About Elvira Dyangani Ose
Elvira Dyangani Ose is artistic director of the 2nd Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial. She was director of MACBA, Barcelona, from September 2021 to April 2026. Previously, she was director and chief curator at The Showroom in London. Dyangani Ose was curator, International Art at Tate, contributing to the development of the institution’s first strategy for collecting art from Africa and its diaspora. She later served on the Tate Modern Advisory Council and the Thought Council at Fondazione Prada. Previously, she has worked as curator of GIBCA, the Eighth Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, as artistic director of the 2nd Rencontres Picha – Lubumbashi Biennial and as curator at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville.
Dyangani Ose served as curator at the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where, in 2006, together with Gabi Ngcobo, Tracy Murinik and Khwezi Guli, curated Olvida Quien Soy / Erase from who I Am, an exhibition examining the aesthetic strategies through which fourteen emergent South African artists defined themselves and their immediate surroundings, questioning the construction of new forms of aesthetic reflection grounded in diverse modes of self-representation.
Other exhibitions include Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica (2024-26); Bouchra Khalili: Between Circles and Constellations (2023); Betye Saar: Uneasy Dancer (2016); A Story Within a Story… (2015); Ibrahim El-Salahi: A Visionary Modernist (2013); and Carrie Mae Weems: Social Studies (2010).
As a specialist in modern and contemporary African art, she has taught seminars and participated in conferences about contemporary African and African Diaspora artistic production and culture, and was a lecturer at Goldsmith’s, University of London, between 2014 and 2021. She is a board member of the CIMAM —The International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art and serves as the Chair of the Content Committee of the upcoming CIMAM Annual Conference in Harare. Dyangani Ose is a doctoral candidate in the History of Art and Visual Studies at Cornell University in New York. She holds a Diploma of Advanced Studies in the History and Theory of Architecture from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and a degree in History of Art from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.