IAO Olfactory Storylab
at Craft Contemporary Museum
June 7, 2025 — September 7, 2025
ABOUT IAO OLFACTORY STORYLAB
As the Craft Contemporary Maker-in-Residence, The Institute of Art and Olfaction will introduce visitors to the rich creative possibilities of scent and craft facilitated by a curated group of visiting perfumers.
Every Saturday between 11 am and 5 pm, the perfumers will work in the IAO-created perfume laboratory in the museum’s lobby to create an olfactory sketch that relates to a myth from their culture or in response to a piece in the museum. As part of the residency program, the perfumers will also provide a short text explaining their work.
The collaborative project will eventually make up a collection of 12 aromatic interpretations that will remain on display at Craft Contemporary for the duration of the residency, and subsequently at The Institute of Art and Olfaction.
The IAO Olfactory Storylab is a collaborative program between The Institute for Art and Olfaction and Craft Contemporary, designed to create access to the creative practice of working with scent. It is produced in conjunction with Ether: Aromatic Mythologies, an exhibition of thirteen artists working at the confluence of storytelling, identity, and scent by delving into ancient, modern, personal, or entirely invented mythologies.
With thanks!
The materials for this residency program are generously provided by MANE, a leading fragrance and flavors manufacturer based in France and the United States. Learn more.
Founded as a museum in 1973, Craft Contemporary reveals the potential of craft to educate, captivate, provoke, and empower. With a focus on contemporary art made from craft media and processes, Craft Contemporary presents dynamic exhibitions by established and emerging artists and designers who are often underrepresented in larger art institutions. Craft Contemporary complements these exhibitions with a creative line-up of educational programs, including hands-on workshops led by professional artists. Craft Contemporary cultivates an environment for people in Los Angeles to deepen their relationship to art, creativity, and one another. Learn more.
Participating Perfumers
Schedule subject to change. All perfumers will be at IAO Olfactory Storylab in the lobby of Craft Contemporary from 11am to 5pm on their date of appearance.
Week 1: Saturday, June 7, 2025
Joe Merrell
Eyes Are Always There
Joe Merrell grew up in Olympia, Washington and studied philosophy, literature, and history at The Evergreen State College. He later went on to earn an MFA in film at CalArts in Valencia, California. Based in Los Angeles, he makes various sorts of media art — video, installation, print — for exhibition in galleries, festivals, and museums. Since 2016, he has been working creatively with scent, both in his fine arts practice and with a perfume line called “The Eyes Are Always There”.
Web: eyesarealwaysthere.com
IG: @eyesarealwaysthere
Week 2: Saturday, June 14, 2025
Minetta Rogers
The Institute for Art and Olfaction
Minetta Rogers is an artist whose work is focused on the small, the disposable, and the everyday. She studied architecture at California College of the Arts and worked in the industry and its adjacent industries (architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, production design) in a former life. She currently works as the Director of Programs at the Institute for Art and Olfaction. Minetta Rogers lives in Los Angeles.
Web: artandolfaction.com
IG: @minettaartolfaction
Week 3: Saturday, June 21, 2025
Dana El Masri
Jazmin Saraï
Dana El Masri is a perfumer, interdisciplinary artist, lecturer, and storyteller. She is inspired by the sights, scents, and sounds of our contemporary landscape, her rooted Egyptian-Lebanese cultures, and her global life experience. In 2014, Dana created Jazmin Saraï, an indie line of small-batch, unisex perfumes and scented products handmade in Los Angeles, CA.
Dana’s work bridges different cultures and media to create multi-sensory, synaesthetic, and immersive experiences. Focusing on the importance of olfaction in social interaction, cultural belonging, and how scents make us feel. Her ultimate goal is to swap the euro-centric lens of perfumery with a multifaceted, multicultural, flourishing universe of narratives. Her work (perfumes, olfactory & interdisciplinary installations) has been presented in Arlington, Amsterdam, Dearborn, Denver, London, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York and Tunis.
Her written work has been published in the US, UK, and online.
Web: jazminsarai.com
IG: @jazminsarai.scents
Week 4: Saturday, June 28, 2025
Julianne Lee
The Institute for Art and Olfaction
Julianne Lee is a perfumer and writer. With a B.A. in visual art and philosophy from Bennington College and a technical degree from the Grasse Institute of Perfumery, she currently serves as Director of Projects at the Institute for Art and Olfaction. Beyond client work in fine fragrance formulation, she exhibits olfactory art installations, collaborates with artists on cross-modal projects, and has presented research challenging orientalism in the perfume industry.
Web: artandolfaction.com
IG: @j_s_e_l
Week 5: Saturday, June 5, 2025
Debbie Lin and Na-Moya Lawrence
SAMAR
SAMAR is an indie perfumery using scent to explore the liminal space where uncanny realism and dreamy fantasy unite. Perfumery is a natural coupling of art and science that exists to both spark curiosity and bring us joy. While many avenues of self expression are visual and fraught with ever-changing beauty standards, we feel that anointing oneself with perfume is a uniquely personal ritual. Any “note” is worthy of becoming the focal point of a story, so it’s with that perspective we craft lush olfactory narratives that transport wearers to moments both familiar and surreal. Beyond the desire for creative expression, shaping SAMAR was also motivated by our drive to contribute meaningfully to our communities. We aim to have a positive impact by fundraising for and volunteering with grassroots mutual aid groups providing vital services both here at home and to our global community. We believe that indulging in kindness is key to connection and communal happiness!
Web: samarpitcrew.com
IG: @samarpitcrew
Week 6: Saturday, June 12, 2025
L’lia ‘Tizzle’ Thomas
Aromakaura
L’lia (Eye-Lee-Uh), also known as TIZZLE, is a Multipassionate Artist, Intuitive Perfumer, Astrology Oracle, and former Arts Educator whose work explores scent as a bridge between personal mythology and ancestral memory. She is the creatrix behind AROMAKAURA, a soul-led brand offering Reiki-infused perfume blends and elemental rituals that support inner transformation and energetic alignment. With certifications in Medicinal Aromatherapy and Reiki, and advanced degrees in Art Education and Psychology, her practice blends Elemental Perfumery, Intuitive Arts, and energy work to support deep emotional alchemy. Drawing from her Afro-Indigenous lineage, TIZZLE creates custom scents as tools for ritual, remembrance, and reconnection. Her approach is both sensory and spiritual—honoring the unseen, the inner child, and the wisdom of the natural world. As a storyteller through scent, she treats perfume as a language of feeling—a way to decode the past, reclaim power, and realign with sacred truth.
Web: aromakaura.com
IG: @aromakaura
Week 7: Saturday, June 19, 2025
Saskia Wilson-Brown
The Institute for Art and Olfaction
Saskia Wilson-Brown is an artist who works across media to explore ideas that are interesting to her. This is most often expressed through collaborative social practice works (and most commonly through the Institute for Art and Olfaction), but often also incorporates other creative expressions, including education, curation, community events, visual art, writing, film-making, and scent. In addition to co-running the Institute for Art and Olfaction, she is working on a PhD at University College Dublin’s SmartLab.
Web: artandolfaction.com | saskiawilsonbrown.com
IG: @saskiacwb
Week 8: Saturday, June 26, 2025
Terry Carter
Travertine Spa Atelier
Terry is the Chief Perfumer and Founder of Travertine Spa Atelier. Terry brings more than 20 years of experience and extensive perspective to the table. He is in collaboration with Osmo Labs on the forefront of fragrance technology. Terry is an accomplished legal scholar, businessman and a Paris-trained perfumer. He custom formulates fragrance and body care products for ultra-luxe resorts, multinational corporations and is a perfumery educator. He blends bespoke perfumes for celebrities but rarely name drops. Terry’s branded product received the distinction of a Forbes travel product of the year. He has been quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Entrepreneur, Medium and as a Master Perfumer in HuffPost. Travertine products have been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, BRAVO, FOX, EXTRA and NPR.
Web: travertinespa.com
IG: @travertinespacollection
Week 9: Saturday, August 2, 2025
Persephenie
Persephenie Botanicals
Persphenie is a creative with interests in art, design, and the olfactory. Her expertise is in perfumery and incense, and she moonlights as a painter and crafter. With personal shifting priorities and existing in complex times, sharing a different aspect of her work and offering experiential encounters feels intimately important and relevant. She opened her aromatic studio in 2004, and has been teaching scent related classes since 2006. She has a small, specialized line using natural and rare materials, and occasionally she develops scent for other brands. She looks forward to extending her art into new experiences.
Web: persephenie.com
IG: @persephenie_studio
Week 10: Saturday, August 9, 2025
Daniel Krasofski
The Institute for Art and Olfaction
Daniel Krasofski is a fragrance artist, perfumer, and educator whose lifelong passion for scent began at age five during a formative visit to a Bermudian perfumery, where he first encountered the art of enfleurage and distillation. Raised in North Dakota, his work is deeply informed by an early appreciation for Native American lore and the natural world. With a background in Ayurveda and aromatherapy, Krasofski spent two decades developing spa products and consulting for leading resorts worldwide before dedicating himself fully to perfumery. As Lab Manager at the Institute for Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles, he teaches, mentors, and fosters global community among independent and experimental perfumers, while also helping to produce the Art+Olfaction Awards. His creative projects span historically inspired fragrances, collaborations with the entertainment industry, and olfactory art installations, all reflecting his commitment to scent as both an aesthetic and holistic experience.
Web: artandolfaction.com
IG: @labdk1
Week 11: Saturday, August 16, 2025
Miss Layla
fum Fragrances
Miss Layla is an interdisciplinary artist and self taught perfumer. Her diverse background and interest in the arts inspired her creative journey into the world of perfumery. Layla believes in perfume’s ability to conjure unseen worlds. Using scent as a medium, she creates from within to weave her fragrance compositions into narratives that transport the wearer to far off landscapes, places within imagination and beyond.
Web: fumfragrances.com
IG: N/A
Week 12: Saturday, August 23, 2025
Maxwell Williams
UFO Parfums
Maxwell Williams is a perfumer, olfactory artist, researcher, DJ/producer, and writer based in Los Angeles. They have been the subject of solo exhibitions and presentations at Olfactory Art Keller, New York (2022 and 2024); the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (MOCA, 2023); the Institute for Art & Olfaction, Los Angeles (2022); Galerie de Thorigny, Paris (2020); and SEASON, Seattle (2019). They have collaborated with artists including Sean Raspet, Parker Ito, DJ Python, Bri Williams, Ry Rocklen, Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs, Natasha Tomchin, Ariana Reines, Reggie Watts, and Paul Kopkau to bring scent into the gallery or performance space; and brands including Everybody.World, Cinnabon, Come Tees, OBEY, and Boot Boyz to create perfumes. They founded UFO Parfums in 2019.
Web: ufoparfums.com
IG:@ufoparfums
Learn more about IAO Olfactory Storylab at Craft Contemporary, here