Kóan Jeff Baysa is an independent contemporary art curator, writer, critic, physician, Whitney Museum Independent Study Program - Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellow, and is a member of AICA, the association of international art critics. He specialises in designing and producing projects and events that bring together seemingly disparate subjects, i.e. art and science, smell and architecture. A contributing writer for the online publications Flavorpill and Ctrl+P Journal of Contemporary Art, he has written for Art Asia Pacific, is the Pacific editor for d'Art International (Toronto), contributing writer and editor for contemporary culture periodicals, aRUde, The Royal, and a member of and medical consultant for the KDU, a global network of talent headed by David Gensler.
As a medical scientist, his interests center around issues
of the sensate body and in the ways that the physical self experiences and knows the world
through the senses; as a cultural worker, his interests lie in examining the dynamics of microcultures nesting within
larger cultures.
KJ Baysa has curated shows for the London Biennale, LA International Biennial, Whitney Museum, Canon Corporation, The United Nations, and has organised and participated in art events throughout the US and in Paris, Cork, London, Abu Dhabi, Beijing, Bandung, Hong Kong, Manila, Santiago, Singapore, Cologne, Seoul, and Yokohama. On the boards of The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School University, Art Omi International Artist Colony, the Asian American Art Centre, and The Center for Photography at Woodstock, he has presented lectures at the Whitney Museum of American Art and MoMA in New York.
He is a consultant to and associate of The Daily Brand, a multi-disciplinary communications agency based in Los Angeles headed by Colin Mangham, a fellow founding member of MOCA China. The critic-in residence for the 2006 Art Omi International Artist Colony in Ghent, New York, he received a Ford Foundation grant to lecture on contemporary curatorial practice at the Hanoi University of Culture in Vietnam and conducted a survey of contemporary art in south and north Vietnam.
Born and raised in Hawaii and completing his medical training at UCSF with a fellowship in allergy and clinical immunology, Dr. Baysa divides his time between New York and Los Angeles. He has a special interest in the role of the sense of smell in health and aesthetics, creating olfactory projects with chemist-artists and collaborating in clinical research with scientists in Los Angeles and Berlin. The focus is on olfactory stimuli and their potential beneficial effects on memory disorders like Alzheimer's and ADHD.
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travel blog kjbaysa.blogspot.com
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MMVR Salon and The Well, Long Beach, California - January 17 - 22, 2009 featuring Virgil Wong
Entre NOUS at KKProjects 28 Oct - 2 Nov 2008. Performance artists with an audience of one (at a time). Gabrielle Penabaz, Nicole Blackburn, Angela Freiberger.
Juror for the NurtureArt Benefit 2008, along with notable guest curators Lilly Wei, Amy Rosemblum Martin, and Lowell Pettit
Crédit – a parfum by Christophe Laudamiel, with Koan Jeff Baysa and Ike Ude.
Scheduled to launch with the Spring 09 issue of aRude magazine during Fashion Week in New York.
Dress You Up in My Love - A project with Mie Iwatsuki; a fashion event with art world personae as runway models.
With Seth Carnes, the iheart art-wine project
CURRENT and RECENT PROJECTS and EVENTS
Curator for Janet Bellotto's WAVE at the Lab for Installation and Performance Art, Hotel Roger Smith, New York - 9 September 2008
Ise Cultural Foundation Awards, SoHo, New York - presented to Zhang Yu (L) and Komaki Yamakawa (R) - 23 August 2008
Performance by Ash Keating, Ssamzie residency artist from Australia. Presentation to Artists in Residence at Ssamzie Art Space, Seoul - 12 August 2008
The Chinese Biennial 2008 Beijing - Curated by Pan Xing Lei, Li Shanhu, Kóan Jeff Baysa, 2 August 2008 at the Ku Art Center
"Passing and Peril on the Information Superhighway:
Representation of Individual Asian Identity in Cyberspace" Panel
discussion with Roopesh Sitharan, Mina Cheon, Judy Sibayan,
Jiayi Young. ISEA Singapore 25 July - 3 August 2008
TEKRAR by David Marcus Abir in The Sonic Self, Chelsea Art Museum, New York 17 July - 30 August 2008
Virgil Wong's installation, Womb of a Pregnant Man, in The Sonic Self, Chelsa Art Museum
Benefit auction event for HIV Project, Moti Hasson Gallery, 2 June 2008. silent auction pieces
"Prometheus-Frankenstein" a lecture addressing the divided careers of physician-artists, from Wolfgang Laib to Eric Avery. St. Francis University, Fort Wayne, Indiana - 23 April 2008
With Patricia Millns, the scent of Surrender, in If There Ever Was: Extinct and Impossible Smells, curated by Robert Blackson. cuchifritos, New York - 22 March 2008
7 March 2008 - Presentation entitled "Curare" at MoMA, sponsored by MoMA, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and The Society for the Arts in Healthcare,
4 January 08 - "Fuerzas Naturales: Against Type" ; Photographs by Laura Aguilar and Delilah Montoya. Magnan Emrich Contemporary, New York
20 December 07 - "Materia Dolorosa" International group exhibition at Galeria Metropolitana in Santiago, Chile, part of the global MuseumMan tour. Artists: Cory Wagner, Kata Mejia, Rodney Dickson; the second iteration in Valparaiso included Yeni Mao, Anindita Dutta, Mithu Sen, Virgil Wong
Blue's Room by Adam Nankervis
"Yokohama Boogie: Under the Influence" at ZAIM, Yokohama, Japan. International exhibition by 15 artists inspired by Yokohama's pioneering spirit. 15-30 September 2007.
Jamaica FLUX: Workspaces and Windows 2007. Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning. 31 artists present community-based projects in this Queens neighborhood. Co-curated with Olu Oguibe and Juliana Driever. 29 September 2007 - 12 January 2008
Catalog essay for Natalie Bewernitz and Marek Goldowski, Kunstlehaus Scholß, Balmoral, Germany.
Invited member of the International Programming Committee for ISEA 2008 Singapore
Participant, "When Art (Or In What Regard)" a collaborative project initiated by Jeanette Doyle with Sara Reisman, available online and in print at Socrates Sculpture Park. 11-26 August 2007.
For aRude magazine's
issue on fragrance, interviews with Toshiko Mori, Chair of the
Department of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of
Design; Herzog & de Meuron, Pritzger Prize Winners 2001; Nobi Shioya, independent fragrance designer
"Flora Exquis" online exhibition at GrackleWorld
aRude magazine interview with Malcolm Daniel, Curator of Photographs at the Metropolitan Museum, New York
Benefit auction event for HIV Law Project, Moti Hasson Gallery, New York. 4 June 2007. Silent auction pieces
Participant in Eric Van Hove's audio piece, Three Dialogues, streamed at Art on Call on the Bloomberg website, 23 May 2007.
"Sudden Springs Suite" paintings by Charles Michael Norton, 5 Harrison Street, New York. 19 April - 20 June 2007.
"Vitamin W: The Wonder Factor, Altered States" at cWOW, 6 Crawford Street, Newark, New Jersey. 12 April - 31 May 2007.
25 March 2007 - Auction Committee Member, BAM Art Silent Auction Committee
A three day lecture series on curatorial practice and presentation culture at Hanoi University of Culture, North Vietnam. Sponsorship and travel grant by the Ford Foundation, Dong Son Today Foundation. 28-30 March 2007.
"Science Friction-1: The Hottest Scientists in the Art World" at the Penthouse of the Roger Smith Hotel. Discussion of materials in the arts.Doug Fitch (foodstuffs), Adam Zaretsky (living tissue), Michael Rees (systems), W. Brad Paley (data). 4 February 2007. ScienceFrictionArtistsStatements.pdf
"Nature in the Garage: Exploding Wonder" panel discussion with d'Art International publisher Steve Rockwell and artist-writer curator Janet Bellatto. Gallery 1313, Toronto, Canada. 2 August 2006.
Asian American Art Centre Selection Panel for the 16th Annual Exhibition (with Reiko Tomii, Shelly Bahl, Jung Hyang Kim, Judy Collischan). 27 July 2006.
Critic-in-residence for theArt Omi International Artist Colony in Ghent, New York, 2-23 July 2006.
"d'Asie d'Afrique" at Museum 63, Kowloon, Hong Kong. A new media version of the New York
exhibition cited as "One of the Best in 2005" by Art Asia Pacific
magazine Almanac: June 3, 2006
"Alimatuan: The Emerging Artist as American Filipino" at The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii. Presenting 26 emerging artists, concurrent with the 100th anniversary of Filipino immigration to the United States. May 25, 2006
Membership in AICA, Association International Critiques d'Art, May 2006.
"Codes
of Culture: Video Art from 7 Continents" advisor to curator Nina
Colosi. arteBA2006, 15 Feria de Arte Contemporaneo, Buenos Aires,
Argentina. May 19, 2006.
"Drawing the Line" at the Center Against Domestic Violence. Art auction benefit committee member. New York. 8 May 2006.
"T5S
vs. KDU" fashion launch with artwork by Kareem Black, Jason Bass, Chuck
Anderson, David Gensler, Vault 49, David Choong-Lee, Nigel Dennis, Lex
Mestrovic. Triple 5 Soul stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan, 27 April
2006. Hyperbeast Interview
"Chimaera"
at Tenri Cultural Institute, New York. Talented artists of diverse
racial backgrounds express phenotypes and artworks of hybrid vigor.
9 February 2006.
"cuatro" at Sumi New York, in SoHo. Featuring
Franklin Evans, Shingo Francis, Cordy Ryman, Christopher Saunders.
2 February 2006.
art::pulse magazine launch. Artists featured in the online magazine presented works in an upper east side penthouse space. 20 January 2006.
"Metabodies: Medicine and Media" at the
Elizabeth Stone Harper Gallery at Presbyterian College, Clinton, South
Carolina. Virgil Wong and Jeff Wyckoff. 19 January 2006
"Red Beans and Rice at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollis University, Roanoke, Virginia. 17 January 2006.
"Russia
2: Bad News from Russia" atEthan Cohen Fine Arts, TriBeCa, New York.
Featuring the Blue Noses, artists from Siberia. 17 December 2005.
"d'Afrique, d'Asie" at Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, TriBeCa, New York. Examining the
contemporary links between Africa and Asia seen through the lens of
Asian hip hop, interracial marriages, artists of mixed Asian-African
parentage. 17 November 2005
"Red Beans and Rice at theElizabeth Stone Harper Gallery at Presbyterian College, Clinton, South Carolina. 8 November 2005.
"USUK2"
at Three Colts Gallery, London. The reciprocal component, concurrent
with the Frieze Art Fair, of the show that opened at the Lab Gallery in
New York, concurrent with theFrieze Art Fair. 7 October 2005.
Dominik Lejman at MOCA London. Video projections by this professor of art from Poznan, Poland. Lecture at the Polish Embassy. Exhibition concurrent with the Frieze Art Fair. 16 October 2005
"Flippin' Out: Maynila to Williamsburgh" at Goliath Visual Spacein Greenpoint/Brooklyn, New York. Showcasing artists from artist-run alternative spaces in Manila and NY-based artists of Filipino ancestry in a parallel artist-run space in New York. 17 September 2005
Red Beans and Rice at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
Asian artists influenced by life experiences in the American South. 9 Sept 05
"Summer Here" at 5 Harrison, TriBeCA, NY. Works by Masami Teraoka, Zhang Hongtu, and Katsuya Nishimori. 26 July 2005
‘INKED!’ at the Shore Institute oaulContemporary Art, Long Branch, New Jersey. Artworks by artists inspired by tattooage. 15 July 2005
Anatomically Correct - Broadway Gallery, New York. 7 May 2004. Aaron Sheppard as life-sized Barbie, then Ken.
Planet Paul at 45 Greene Street, SoHo, New York 2004
/S/ (Seven Deadly Sins) at
Cleveland State University Art Gallery, Ohio. An installation of smells
of the Seven Deadly Sins designed by fragrance artists in the industry.
24 January - 8 March 2003
"Divining Fragments: Reconciling the Body" at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, 2003
"Oxygen" at White Box,
Chelsea, NY. Gordon Matta-Clark, Marina Abramovic, Ann Hamilton, Oscar
Munoz, Wendy Jacob, Montien Boonma, David Shaw, Pak Keung Wan, Roland
Flexner, Sarah Lovitt, Rey Akdogan. 8 February - 9 March 2002
"FAKE!" at post, Los Angeles. Group exhibition about the webs of illusion in its capital city. 10 November 2002.
Archived Website Data
CURING AND CURATING
Both sciences and the arts are healing cultures. The words "curing" and "curating" have the same root word, curare, in Latin, "to help."
Approximately twenty four hours prior to this medical emergency in the air, I was opening the exhibition d'Asie d'Afrique at Museum 63 in Hong Kong.
The woman seated in 39G on the American Airlines flight from Honolulu to Chicago was experiencing increasing difficulty seeing clearly, her vision collapsing to a tunnel-like view, with complaints that she was losing sensation in her extremities. She also complained of a headache and abdominal pain. Her husband was concerned that she was becoming progressively weak and unresponsive. The flight attendant put out a call over the speakers for doctors on board, and I rose to examine the patient. Another physician, in Bermuda shorts and a bright blue Margaritaville t-shirt and I, in camouflage shorts, flip-flops, and a Triple 5 Soul black hoodie, appeared unlikely attendants to this woman symptomatic from dehydration and electrolye imbalance secondary to gastroenteritis with diarrhea, symptoms that afflicted several other passengers on board their holiday cruise in Hawaiian waters. Although her initial low blood pressure and confusional state improved after oral rehydration, after appropriate history-taking and a limited physical exam, our joint medical decision was to divert the flight to San Francisco to deplane and stabilize the patient with more definitive care in health facilities on the ground. She was expected to fully respond to intravenous rehydration and electrolyte replacement.
Big mahalos to my family for their love and constant support: parents Danny and Pat Baysa, sister Beverly; son Colter and Juliet with grandson Liam, son Kanoa and Emma with grandsons Ikaika and Kekoa; sons Dylan, Elan, Nohea, and daughter Aiyana.
Dedicated to our daughter Leah lost to stomach cancer on 10 November 2006, hanai
sister Ella lost to lung cancer on 4 May 2008 and friend Sergio who
drowned off Oahu on 11 July 2008. I love and miss you very much.