Have you ever been to an olfactory gallery in which guests are encouraged to smell the art? You’re about to get your chance. Our upcoming Untapped New York Insider event invites you to smell your way through Olfactory Art Keller’s scent art collection. This unique gallery, which opened in February 2021 in New York’s Chinatown at 25 Henry Street, showcases work by artists who create scents. Olfactory Art Keller has curated seven exhibitions including New York/New Fumes, which presents novel creations by 21 New York-based scent artists. The Insiders event will be led by Andreas Keller Ph.D., the gallery’s director and author of “Philosophy of Olfactory Perception.”

soaps at Olfactory Art Keller
Courtesy of Olfactory Art Keller.

On August 13, Untapped New York Insiders are invited inside the olfactory gallery to meet a scent artist and a philosopher of smell. During the event, you can smell over 50 scents you’ve never smelled before, including one inspired by the smell of bat blood and an olfactory recreation of an intimate embrace. Smell novel works by Master Perfumers Christophe Laudamiel and Carlos Benaim. The event is free for Untapped New York Insiders (and get your first month free with code JOINUS).

boots with salt and pepper shakers filled with scents

Tour of Olfactory Art Keller

Olfactory Art Keller encourages artists to create olfactory art and collectors to collect it. The gallery offers exhibition space for olfactory objects, experiences, and performances, as well as provides technical and logistical support for artists to work with odor. Keller is an academic who investigates different aspects of olfactory perception. He has taught smell to City College and Columbia University students.

Displays at Olfactory Art Keller
Courtesy of Olfactory Art Keller.

The gallery has curated seven exhibitions to date, which typically involve inviting artists to contribute their original scents. Past exhibitions at the gallery included Ten Encounters, in which Saskia Wilson-Brown of the Institute for Art and Olfaction invited 10 artists to explore encounters between two individuals that shaped culture to this day; Scents of Exile, in which Brian Goeltzenleuchter interviewed refugees and immigrants about their scent memories of home; and /Forest Bath, which brings the forest and forest bathing directly to the city.

Olfactory Art Keller entrance
Courtesy of Olfactory Art Keller.

On August 13, smell your way through Olfactory Art Keller’s scent art collection. The event is free for Untapped New York Insiders (and get your first month free with code JOINUS).

Next, check out the Top 10 Secrets of Manhattan Chinatown.