BIography

Ayca Okay (b. 1991, Izmir) is an AICA Turkey (Association Internationale des Critiques d'Art) and CIMAM (International Committee of Museums and Collections of Modern Art) member curator generally working in between SWANA and Europe.

She prioritizes research-based curatorial projects, emphasizing developing intellectual resources, knowledge-sharing, and establishing sustainable support systems. Collaborating with individuals, communities, and institutions, Okay values an holistic curatorial approach. 

As a curator, she aims to produce unique discourses on contemporary problems and go beyond the artificial limits of the contemporary art sphere by seeing art as a byproduct of specific processes such as thoughts, ideas, texts, theories, and experiments.

Since 2018, Okay has curated and managed exhibitions for various collections, including Borusan Contemporary Museum, Contemporary Istanbul Foundation, Yves Rocher Foundation, and Baksı Museum. She has curated exhibitions in Berlin at project spaces and galleries such as Vorfluter Projektraum, Scope Berlin, and Somos Arts.  Ayça Okay has been actively engaged with LOOP since 2022, nowadays serving as both a scouter and advisor. In her role, she fosters new connections and facilitates collaborations across the European region and the Middle East.

In addition to consulting art projects for corporate organizations like Turkish Airlines and QNB-FinansBank, she was the Art Programs Director at Contemporary Istanbul Foundation. She engaged in fundraising projects with the Consulates General of Ukraine and Poland. 

In 2022, the SAHA Association supported her as a member curator for the CIMAM platform, which selected three curators from Turkey. Her articles have been published in Stir World, Hürriyet Newspaper, Posta Newspaper, Gazete Duvar, Milliyet Sanat Magazine, and Artdog Magazine. She moderated and participated in panels and meetings at Loop Barcelona Fair, BASE Istanbul, and the Collective Healing Project Public Program supported by ZOMA Museum in cooperation with Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Turkish Women Association. 

She studied BMA at Istanbul Technical University, and she had her MA in Theory Of Arts and Criticism from Isık University Visual Arts in Istanbul and completed the International Curatorial Program (ICP) at NODE Center for Curatorial Studies in Berlin. She was selected for the Culture Route program by IKSV and UNESCO in 2021.

In 2022-2023, she served as a jury member for APEXART's art competitions in New York. 

n 2024, she has been invited to Athens to study the collection of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, as part of the International Curators Visiting Program, and to Oslo as part of the International Curators Visiting Program of OSLO OPEN.

Elected as a board member of the BAKSI Museum, Ayça Okay represents the contemporary art ecosystem for TÜSİAD Berlin Bosphorus Initiative.

Currently she curated an extended collection exhibition at BAKSI Museum titled "GEL ZAMAN GİT ZAMAN".