Olfactory Art Keller: the New York gallery exhibiting the smell of vintage perfume, blossoming lilacs and last night’s shame

The founder of experimental gallery Olfactory Art Keller Dr Andreas Keller isn’t a nose or a perfumer in the traditional sense.

But, he is obsessed with ‘smell’ as the stimulus for conversation, memory and experience. Working with artists, he curates bespoke ‘odours’ to exhibit at the space, which opened in 2021 in New York’s Chinatown, examining how ‘smell’ can become an art piece in itself.

Inside Olfactory Art Keller, the experimental New York gallery exhibiting ‘smell’

Dr Keller has investigated ‘scent’ over the past 20 years, obtaining PhDs in both neuroscience and philosophy, with a research focus on what he would refer to as ‘olfaction’. His 2018 book Philosophy of Olfactory Perception explores the relationship between ‘sight’ and ‘smell’, examining the objective experience of each. ‘Many of the smells here are conceptual,’ Dr Keller tells me, of the works on display at Olfactory Art Keller. ‘It’s not, “Oh, this smells like banana.” It’s an idea, more than anything.’

Whilst the approach to each exhibition varies – and does incorporate visual elements at times – it largely engages with the ephemeral. And, as Dr Keller explains, the number of artists practising in this medium seems to be increasing, due to an uptick in responses to his open calls for work around a particular theme. ‘I think the first time I put out a call maybe 40 people applied,’ he explains. ‘Last time it was closer to 100 people.’ Some of the subjects explored in group exhibitions have included ‘Portraits in Scent’, with pieces that capture ‘the intangible (or is it the invisible?) that eludes photography and painting’. Also ‘Minimal Scents’, a show focusing on the relatively new concept of ‘minimalism’ in scent creation.

Olfactory Art Keller also stages time-based work in its Project Rooms, plus performances and workshops, in collaboration with this expanding community. Some are still amateurs in the world of scent, learning how to mix and make odours as they go; others are professional noses, working in their day jobs as perfumers. ‘I always know when a scent submission comes from a perfumer,’ Keller says. ‘They find it much harder to create a really “bad” smell.’

The ‘unpleasant’ is certainly not something that Olfactory Art Keller shies away from. One of the scents from the recent exhibition ‘Scent as a Creative Medium’ by Rachel Barfield was simply called ‘Shame’, a perfume juxtaposing ingredients that resemble ‘human secretions’ with florals, soft musks and ambers. To me, it smelled of bad decisions: overpowering sweat; a touch of lingering alcohol.

‘You’d have to be pretty ashamed to wear it, right?’ Dr Keller says, with a laugh. ‘But maybe, after a while, you could own it.’ (For those who are curious, ‘Shame’ is available to purchase through Olfactory Art Keller’s online store).

Other times, Olfactory Art Keller will highlight an artist for a solo exhibit, like Brooklyn-based Elizabeth Renstrom. Her show ‘Basenote Bitch’, which ran between February and March this year (2024), displayed fragrant works – images, objects and scents – to evoke adolescent ‘nostalgia’.‘Like a first love or a first shame, it’s hard to forget your first scent,’ read the exhibition notes. ‘Each tends to occur during those heady, hormone-filled teenage years when everything's at once fresh, exciting, awkward and unbearable.’

Alongside pop-cultural iconography from the late 20th and early 21st century, perfumes highlighted by Renstrom spanned from Dior ‘Fahrenheit’ (1988), ‘Country Apple’ by Bath and Body Works (1997), ‘Love Spell’ by Victoria’s Secret (1999) and Gap ‘Dream’ (1995). The current show, which runs until 21 December (2024) is a collaboration between California-based artists Sean Raspet and Maxwell Williams. Titled ‘Missense’, it tries to ‘on purpose, create the most ambiguous smell that would be perceived differently by everybody.’

In such a densely populated art area as downtown Manhattan, Dr Keller finds that Olfactory Art Keller offers his audience respite from an oversaturation of solely visual works. Certainly, it’s a relief to think critically through a different sense – and even consider owning a piece of conceptual art that has been distilled into liquid form and can fit inside a handbag.

Olfactory Art Keller is located at 25 Henry St, New York, NY 10002.

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