Ether: Aromatic Mythologies
At Craft Contemporary Museum
May 30, 2025 — October 26, 2025
About Ether
Transcending geographical boundaries, mythology conveys universal truths and archetypal constructs. Smell, similarly, possesses a remarkable capacity to do away with immediate temporal constraints. Unsurprisingly, many cultures use smell as a conduit to different realms of human awareness, memory and consciousness. Smell, therefore, creates an ethereal connection that underscores the profound and often mysterious impact that sensory experiences can have on the human sense of selfhood. Expanding on this, Ether: Aromatic Mythologies examines the confluence of storytelling, identity, and scent by delving into ancient, modern, personal, or entirely invented mythologies. The thirteen olfactory artworks on show seek to explain our most fundamental understanding of ourselves, and how scent can impact systems of meaning in relation to the inexplicable, the historical, or the unknown.
Exhibiting Artists
Alisa Banks (USA)
History of a People, unique (2023)
Scents:
Roots, by Alisa Banks (2023)
Journey, by Alisa Banks (2023)
Arrival, by Alisa Banks (2023)
Harrow, by Alisa Banks (2023)
Protest, by Alisa Banks (2023)
Visioning, by Alisa Bank (2023)
History of a People is a unique artist’s book tracing African American history and culture through scent. Six custom-blended fragrances—Roots, Journey, Arrival, Harrow, Protest, and Visioning—evoke the cultural landscapes of key historical periods, symbolizing the complex layering of a new culture. The cotton cover, inspired by tribal crowns and slave ship schematics, and human hair embellishments reference the Adinkra Sankofa symbol, meaning “go back and get it,” emphasizing the importance of reclaiming history and knowledge across generations. All scents by Alisa Banks, 2023
Alisa Banks (b. 1961, Lawton OK) is a visual artist living in Dallas, Texas who investigates connections between contemporary culture, her Louisiana Creole heritage, and the African diaspora. Alisa’s interests include exploring the performative potential of the book and investigating links to the material culture of her ancestors. Her artists’ books, writings, and textile collages, which often reference traditional craft, are housed in several private and public collections, including the Smithsonian Institution, the US Library of Congress, The Schomburg Center, and The British Library. Alisa holds a B.S. degree in Medical Laboratory Science from Oklahoma State University and a M.F.A. degree in Visual Art from Texas Woman’s University.
IG: @abanksart
Web: www.alisabanks.com
Andrés Cortes (USA)
Espiritu y Tierra (2025)
Scent:
Burnt wood, by Andres Cortes (2025)
This casita honors personal loss, sacrifice, and growth experienced in the artist’s life over the past fifteen years. Constructed with materials from his own multigenerational family workshop and discarded objects from displaced neighbors’ homes in his community, the work is highlighted with handmade accents that evoke the ruins of a sacred place. The installation offers visitors a space to sit and reflect on themes of memory, displacement, and spiritual connection. Drawing from his experience as a first-generation Mexican-American, the artist creates a dialogue between ancestral traditions and contemporary urban experiences of migration and belonging.
Andrés Cortes (b. 1985, Los Angeles) is a first-generation Mexican/California Native. He earned a BFA in Drawing and Painting, with a minor in Comparative World Literature from California State University, Long Beach. He has exhibited his works extensively in California. Solo exhibitions include Maple St. Construct, Omaha, NE; The Brewery Artists Lofts, Los Angeles, CA, and 1700Naud, Los Angeles, CA. Recent group shows in California include Guerrero Gallery, DDLA, LA Mas NELA Comparte, ALTAR LA, Spy Projects; Brand Library Museum; Permanent Storage Projects; Durden & Ray; VANS Studio 808; Odd Ark LA; Werkartz; ARTsea; Bombay Beach Biennale; Other Places Art Fair; Spring Break Art Show LA; Also Gallery LA; XIXstudios; Tiger Strikes Asteroid; Global Giving; The Dojo; Braj Gallery; and Huntington Library. Other group shows include Collar Works, Troy, NY and Sou’Wester, Seaview, WA. He is the founder of ARVIA Projects, an artist-run space and community based space for alternative forms of building and living through the creative lens, started in 2016. He currently resides and works in Los Angeles, CA.
IG: @arviaprojects
Cristian Marianciuc (Romania)
Olfactory Peregrinations (2020 – 2024)
Scents:
Cycle 001, by Violet
720, by Maison Sybarite
Vapeurs Diablotines, by Sous le Manteau
Floral, by Olfactive O
Mellow Yellow, by Astrophil and Stella
Blond Tenebreux, by Oxymore
Cuir Flores, by Geodora
Brenton, by Aqualis
Spicy Calabria, by Maison Sybarite
Attract, by Lingua Planta
Protean Desire, by Syd Botanica
Archangels, by Caeleste
Cristian Marianciuc’s jewel-like paper birds are meticulously cut, folded, and glued to capture the sensorial impressions of both contemporary and vintage perfumes. His series, Olfactory Peregrinations, gives physical form to scent, inviting viewers to engage all their senses. Each bird is inspired by Marianciuc’s personal interpretation of a fragrance, evolving from narrative and olfactory cues. Through these delicate creations, he transforms ephemeral smells into tangible, visual art, bridging the worlds of scent, memory, and storytelling in a unique sensory experience. Scents by various artists, various years.
Cristian Marianciuc (b. 1989, Romania) is a paper artist. His work revolves around the traditional origami crane. Since 2014 he has been perfecting his very personal style which sees the humble yet beautifully symbolic traditional model of the crane come alive with the help of intricately cut wings, flowers, folkloric motifs, and other decorative paper elements. In 2020 Cristian turned his attention to the world of perfume in his constant search for sources of inspiration. The resulting project, “Olfactory Peregrinations”, aims to give physical shapes to fragrances: they are assigned colours, a “body”, stories and music to name just a few of the elements that are part of Cristian’s artistic olfactory universe. Each of these paper sculptures is meant to serve as a travel companion on the multilayered and multi-sensory journey proposed by the artist.
IG: icarus.mid.air
Joe Merrell (USA)
4-Logic (version 2) (2024/2025)
Chapel in a clearing, deer and raven (2025)
Offering (version 2) (2025)
Scents:
Chapel, by Joe Merrell (2023)
Offering, by Joe Merrell (2023)
Joe Merrell’s work draws on religion, esoterica, and UFO lore. 4-logic uses modular tiles with varied symbols and patterns, generating new meanings through their arrangement. Chapel in a Clearing (blue plinth) evokes celestial keys and church pews, combining UFO and esoteric symbols with a light, green scent (orange blossom, rose de mai, violet leaf, palma rosa) and binary code from an alien abductee. Offering (grey plinth) resembles altar objects for unknown devotion, paired with a rich, incense-like scent and code for the 3D-printed forms. Chapel Scent (blue plinth) by Joe Merrell, 2023. Offering Scent (gray plinth) by Joe Merrell, 2023.
Los Angeles-based artist Joe Merrell studied philosophy, literature, and history and The Evergreen State College, in Olympia, WA. He went on to earn an MFA in film at CalArts in Valencia, California. Based in Los Angeles, he makes video, installation, print, sculpture and scent for exhibition in galleries, festivals and museums. In addition, he has a line of fine fragrances sold under the brand “The Eyes Are Always There” that he sells online and in several perfume boutiques.
IG: @eyesarealwaysthere
Website: joemerrell.com / eyesarealwaysthere.com
Karola Braga (Brasil)
Star of the Waters (2025)
Scent:
Victoria amazonica flower, by Karola Braga (2025)
In Indigenous Brazilian folklore, Naiá, a young woman, falls in love with Jaci, the moon goddess, and transforms into the Victoria-Regia, the Amazon’s giant water lily, becoming a “star of the waters.” Braga’s installation, Star of the Waters, evokes this myth with a circle of dark soil dotted with lights, ceramic vessels of water and soil, and sculptural forms of the Victoria-Regia flower. A subtle scent, extracted from an Amazonian flower, permeates the space, evoking Naiá’s transformation and the elusive nature of memory. Victoria amazonica flower scent by Karola Braga, 2025.
Karola Braga (1988, São Caetano do Sul, Brazil) is an artist and olfactory researcher. She holds a Master’s degree in Visual Poetics from ECA/USP and a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from FAAP. By intertwining culture, chemistry, anthropology, and sensory science, her research focuses on the concepts of presence/absence and memory/forgetting. Since 2015, she has participated in national and international exhibitions. Recently, she participated in Desert X AlUla, was nominated for the Pipa Prize 2024, selected for the 27th Project Season at Paço das Artes, and exhibited at the 13th Mercosur Biennial. She was the winner in the Sadakichi category for Experimental Work with Scents at the Art and Olfaction Awards (2025). She has participated in residencies such as the Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), Labverde (Manaus, Brazilian Amazon), and Kooshk Residency (Tehran), where she was awarded the Kooshk Artist Residency Award (KARA 2018)
IG: @karolabraga
Web: www.karolabraga.com
M Dougherty (USA)
Odor Organ and Notational System (2023)
Scents:
Coumarin
Damascenone
Stemone
Octalactone Gamma
Fig Accord, by M Dougherty (2025)
The Odor Organ reintegrates scent into cultural consciousness as a dynamic, deliberate medium. Modeled after a keyboard, this compact device lets users “play” scents—each of its 15 keys releases a specific odor, transforming scent into an interactive experience. An innovative notation system, inspired by a pentagonal prism, visualizes olfactory combinations as geometric symbols. This bridges scent with sound, reframing fragrance as a system akin to music or language, and invites participants to explore scent as both an organic phenomenon and intentional design. All scents provided or created by M Dougherty, 2025
M Dougherty (b. Los Angeles, CA) is a nonbinary olfactory artist and researcher known for their innovative use of scent to explore the intersection of technology, humanity, and the natural world. Through installations, performances, and creative technologies, M uses scientific research and personal introspection to create experiences that inform and immerse audiences in new olfactory worlds.
IG: mx.mdougherty
Web: m-dougherty.com
Maki Ueda (Japan)
Olfactory Labyrinth ver. 8 – The Revival of Oikaze – (2025)
Scents:
May rain, by Maki Ueda (2024/2025)
Wild citrus blossoms in the garden, by Maki Ueda (2024/2025)
Herbs to ward off evil, by Maki Ueda (2024/2025)
Decorative medicinal balls (kusudama), by Maki Ueda (2024/2025)
Room incense of the season, by Maki Ueda (2024/2025)
The scent of Genji’s garment, by Maki Ueda (2024/2025)
The scent of the princess’ garment, by Maki Ueda (2024/2025
This installation recreates a scene from The Tale of Genji, focusing on the “Fireflies” chapter where Prince Hotaru falls for a noble princess. Viewers experience the moment from Hotaru’s perspective, as an elegant fragrance drifts from behind bamboo blinds. Unbeknownst to him, the scent—called “oikaze” (“tail wind”)—actually belongs to Genji, her stepfather and suitor. Aristocrats once used such scents as subtle social signals. The installation invites reflection on how fragrance shapes perception and sensibility, both then and now. All scents by Maki Ueda, 2024/2025.
Olfactory artist Maki Ueda (b. 1974, Tokyo) focuses the spectator’s attention on her fragrant gestures by minimizing the influence of the other senses. Her current research explores olfaction in relation to space and movement resulting in strong, often universal, approaches. She focuses on the pure experience of a smell instead of a more contextual or narrative approach.The results are often intuitive olfactory installations. She teaches regularly at art academies over the world. The Art and Olfaction Award Winner 2022 (Sadakichi Award for Experimental Use of Smell). She majored in media art: B.A. in Environmental Information Studies and M.A. in Media and Governance, Keio University, Japan.
IG: @makiueda
Web: ueda.nl
Peter de Cupere (Belgium)
OAR Olfactory Augmented Reality Paintings/Drawings: When Scents Can Hide the Truth (2025)
Scents:
Five frame scents, by Peter de Cupere (2024/2025)
Belgian artist Peter De Cupere explores folklore by creating imaginative images of possible plants and beings, blending art with technology. Each delicate drawing or painting is paired with a unique, composed scent and comes alive through augmented reality. When scanned, the artworks reveal additional layers of meaning, behaviors, and sensory experiences. This combination of visual, olfactory, and digital elements invites viewers to engage with folklore in a multisensory way, expanding the boundaries of traditional art and storytelling. Scents by Peter de Cupere, 2025
Peter de Cupere is an olfactory artist who lives and works in Antwerp. For 25 years olfactory artist Peter de Cupere has been a prolific and proactive proponent of olfactory art. He realizes artworks related to the olfactory perception of social, cultural and environmental contexts. His works were presented in more than two hundred exhibitions worldwide. He gave lectures from Berlin to New York and collaborated with various institutions and companies. Dr. Peter de Cupere is a lecturer and researcher at the PXL-MAD School of Arts in Hasselt, BE. In the Open Senses Lab he teaches students to use smell, taste and tactility in their artistic practice. In 2019, he completed his PhD ‘When scent makes seeing, when seeing makes scents’, artistic research into the use of smell as a context and/or concept of the work of art. Since 2020, he has been researching the use of fragrances in combination with 3D printing. He realized in collaboration with seven blind and visual impaired people the Olfabet, an olfactory alphabet that allows you to read words and texts just by smelling. The Olfabet was awarded with the public award of the International NTAA New Technology Art Award (2022) and nominated as finalist of the Art and Olfaction Awards in Los Angeles (2022). Peter de Cupere received the Art and Olfaction Award for his lifetime contribution to promote the use of scent in art (London, April 2018). He also received the Sadakichi Art and Olfaction Award (L.A., May 2023) for his experimental work with scent. He’s a member of the Odeuropa Advisory Board, a European research project which bundles expertise in sensory mining and olfactory heritage.
Photo credit: Frederik Buyckx
IG: @olfactoryart
Web: peterdecupere.art
Regina Mamou (USA)
Hang our Gods (2025)
Scents:
Telephone: Scent #1, Left: Seal with; Scent #2, Right: Oil
Television: Scent #3, Left: Tombs without ; Scent #4, Right: Graves
Radio: Scent #5, Left: Gods of ; Scent #6, Right: War
All scents by Regina Mamou (2025)
Hang Our Gods (2025) is a site-specific installation examining political authority through material culture, linking Mesopotamia to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. It recreates a Ba’athist-era official space, featuring objects like a vintage phone and TV that release historically resonant scents when activated. These olfactory elements reference both ancient rituals and modern surveillance, immersing viewers in systems of power. The work highlights how Saddam’s appropriation of ancient symbols created an ideological palimpsest, shaping contemporary understandings of Iraq’s past and present. All scents by Regina Mamou, 2025
Regina Mamou is a research-based installation artist who focuses on the desire to understand the diversity of ideological systems. This interest stems from her familial background, where she grew up aware of the implications of political ideology intertwined with religion. Regina’s mother, a Polish-American, and Regina’s father, a Christian Chaldean from Iraq, raised her in a multiethnic environment. As a former priest, her father left the clergy and Iraq for fear of persecution. Her work is an amalgamation of fact and fiction, placing historical information together with falsehood to explore the power of belief systems, especially regarding communism and totalitarianism. Regina has been the first artist-in-residence at The Wende Museum of the Cold War in Los Angeles since 2020. In her residency, she investigates the relationship between the Middle East and the Soviet Union – specifically, Iraqi-Soviet bilateral relations. She is developing an immersive, experiential installation that views the nuances of this aspect of Cold War history. In addition to her project, Regina is partnering with The Wende’s Collections department to identify important artwork and archival materials for transnational perspectives. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She also received a Fulbright grant to create a project in Amman, Jordan. In addition to her solo practice, Regina collaborates intermittently with Lara Salmon as Research for the Bermuda Triangle.
Photo credit: Myles Pettengill
IG: reginamamou
Web: reginamamou.com
Russell Harris (Germany)
Silks mask (for Mercury) (2017) – (For Glynis)
Rogen Mask (2025)
Scents:
Silks Mask, for Glynis by Raer Scents (Berlin, 2025)
Roggen Mask, for Sulphur by Raer Scents (Berlin, 2025)
Two masks from Harris’ 2018 Berlin triptych (exhibited as The Serpent Eats Its Tail) explore grief and transformation through alchemical symbolism. The Silks Mask, made with inherited embroidery threads, processes maternal loss and reflects Mercury’s fluidity. Roggen Mask, grown from rye and wheat, aligns with Sulphur and themes of queerness, transformation, and care. Each mask contains a natural scent produced by Raer Scents, evoking personal memories and offering an olfactory entry point beyond language.
Russell James Redwood Harris is a Berlin-based, self-taught multidisciplinary artist working with textiles, leather, sculptural objects, and installation. He was born on Romney Marsh—an area known for its sparsely populated wetlands, woodlands, and coastal marshes—and this environment, along with a family culture of making and mending, left a lasting impression on his relationship to materials, process, and care. Harris’s practice explores themes of transformation, ritual, and myth. He often integrates sensory elements to evoke complex personal, visceral, and universal narratives. Since 2015, he has worked as a production assistant to Mark Krayenhoff van de Leur and his husband, the artist A.A. Bronson—a long-standing collaboration that continues to inform his approach to craft, collaboration, and queer lineage.
IG: @_rjrh_
Sarana Mehra (USA)
You Slay for All Eternity (2023)
Vent (2022)
How to Wear a Winding Cloth, 2024
My Sister Calls Me Cassandra (2024)
Scent:
Dyspnea, by Sarana Mehra and Saskia Wilson-Brown (2022)
Mehra’s four works explore the cycle of collapse and renewal, envisioning present-day artifacts as future archaeological relics. Drawing on Eastern and Western mythologies and museum artifacts, she assembles contemporary monuments embedded with clues about today’s society. Each piece, like ancient remnants, leaves behind symbols that obscure their original use and meaning. Mehra’s art questions how we will be remembered, suggesting that despite technological progress, we remain driven by a primal desire to leave lasting traces
Sarana Mehra is a multidisciplinary artist whose work examines the relation between the body, body-politic and the cycle of disintegration and evolution in human-made systems like art, language and technology. Having lived in the liminal space between life and death for much of her life Sarana explores the cycle of collapse, renewal and possible blank spaces left between human experience and online interaction. Drawing on Eastern and Western mythologies and the artifacts of past civilizations gathering dust in our museums, Sarana uses her practice to examine a “future relic”. Each piece, like the remnants of our ancestors, leaves clues and symbols but ultimately obfuscates their contemporary use and ritual. Her work posits that despite our technological advancements we remain, like our primordial predecessors who left their handprints on the cave wall, desperate to be remembered yet unable to thwart decay. Sarana Mehra is a bi-racial British-American artist living and working in Los Angeles. Sarana gained her BFA from the University of Oxford and her MFA from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design (London). Sarana Mehra is a co-founder and media director of Artists 4 Democracy, a grassroots LA-based artist activist group, a member of the Binder of Womxn artist collective and an advocate for healthcare justice.
IG: @sarana_mehra
Web: saranamehra.com
Se Young Au (USA)
Unbridgeable Gulf (strands for No Gun Ri) | Meet Me In No Gun Ri (2025)
Scent:
Costus (hair), by Se Young Au (2025)
LA-based artist Se Young Au explores grief within the Korean diaspora, shaped by Japanese colonialism, US military violence, war-induced separation, and mass adoption. As an adopted Korean, Au’s work collapses timescales, weaving personal rituals, displacement, and survival strategies for multilayered grief. Focusing on the No Gun Ri massacre and Korean burial traditions like the chobun—a temporary straw gravesite—Au uses materiality to connect with lost ancestry. Her installations reimagine sites of violence as liminal spaces for collective gathering, transcending physical, political, and spiritual exile across generations. Scent by Se Young Au, 2025.
Se Young Au is a multi-disciplinary artist and writer who received their BA in photography from Columbia College Chicago. Their work is at the intersection of digital collage, personal archive, installation and olfaction. They have worked within the context of both the fine art and commercial world. Au has exhibited at Henry Art Gallery (Seattle) in collaboration with painter Gabriella Sanchez, El Segundo Museum of Art, AHL Foundation in New York City, and the Institute of Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles. Select clients include: Museum of Natural History Los Angeles, Fly By Jing, and Broccoli Magazine. In 2023, they co-founded Errare, a sensory spatial design studio with their creative partner, Kaitlyn Darby. Additionally, Au writes a quarterly dispatch, Transmissions, which explores olfaction as a tool for transmuting grief.
IG: @seyoungstayoung
Web: senses-studio.com
Sean Raspet (USA)
Olfactory Receptor 2AT4 binding mixture (1.0)
Scent:
Composite scent, by Sean Raspet (2024)
Olfactory Receptor 2AT4 binding mixture (1.0) is a blend of molecules that activate the human olfactory receptor OR2AT4, such as Brahmanol, Sandalore, cyclohexyl salicylate, and other non-sandalwood notes. OR2AT4 is not only present in the nose but also in the skin, where its activation has been linked to promoting wound healing. This mixture highlights the dual sensory and physiological roles of scent molecules, bridging olfactory perception with emerging research on skin health and regeneration. Composite scent by Sean Raspet, 2025.
Sean Raspet is an artist who has been working with scent and molecular structure for over 10 years. His work has been exhibited at the Okayama Art Summit (directed by Pierre Huyghe), Tai Kwun Contemporary Art Centre in Hong Kong, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, de Young Museum, San Francisco, M Woods Museum, Bejing, the 9th Berlin Biennale, Bridget Donahue, New York, Société, Berlin, Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, Empty Gallery, Hong Kong, Sculpture Center, New York, and The Kitchen, New York, among others.
IG: @seanraspet
Web: seanraspet.org
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.