Anosmiac!
By Maxwell Williams
September 1 – 26
IAO Gallery

 

In Mike Kelley’s Kandor series, Kelley reimagined Superman’s hometown on Krypton, shrunk by an evil villain named Brainiac. Kelley’s work included various depictions of this shrunken city, which Superman kept in his secret layer, the Fortress of Solitude, under a bell jar, protecting the city from further damage.

“ANOSMIAC!” is a further subversion of Kelley’s work, inventing an entirely new supervillain named Anosmiac–blessed and cursed with a supernatural nose–wronged by a Superman-like superhero in his youth and intent on destroying a Kandor-like city, hidden under a bell jar, like candles waiting to be melted. The show will feature several wax candle versions of the city fashioned from molds of a variety of sex toys; works-on-paper depictions of Anosmiac and his story; and a new perfume, “SECRET LAIR,” which will be presented in a bottle made of vaseline (uranium glass).

 

VISIT

On View: September 1 – 26, 2022
Open hours will be posted in September

Opening Reception: Friday, September 2

The Institute for Art and Olfaction
932 Chung King Road
Los Angeles CA. 90012

IAO Gallery is accessible by wheelchair.
Directions: artandolfaction.com/visit

 

 

 

PHOTOS

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Photo credit: The Institute for Art and Olfaction

 

 

ABOUT MAXWELL WILLIAMS

Maxwell Williams is a perfumer, olfactory artist, researcher, DJ/producer, and writer based in Los Angeles. Williams’ work places smell in the context of performance, research, sculpture, and photography to explore a personal history of sadomasochism, techno and gabber raves, global trade routes, heartbreak, and the psychology behind the hedonics of scent. Williams’ perfume brand UFO Parfums is a fine fragrance project, inspired by rave culture, and always gender-spectral. They have held solo exhibitions at Olfactory Art Keller, New York; Galerie de Thorigny, Paris; and SEASON, Seattle; and have collaborated with artists and brands like Come Tees, OBEY, Parker Ito, Boot Boyz, Bri Williams, Ry Rocklen, Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs, Ariana Reines, Reggie Watts, Pee Girl, Paul Kopkau, and more. They contributed several chapters to the book The Essence: Discovering the World of Scent, Perfume & Fragrance (Gestalten, 2019), and wrote and directed the auditory-olfactory horror play LUXURE/OCCIRE (2018), which was performed at the Experimental Scent Summit, London. They created and hosted the bricolage radio program Scentless Apprentice (2018) in collaboration with The Institute for Art and Olfaction with Mediamatic, Amsterdam and dublab, Los Angeles. Previously, Williams was a figure in the art, fashion, and journalism worlds, serving as an editor at several global art and fashion magazines, and writing articles and cover stories for publications like Vogue, Condé Nast Traveler, Art in America, The New York Times, ACLU Magazine, GQ, and Dazed. They sit on the board of the Institute for Art and Olfaction.

 

Website: www.ufoparfums.com

 

 

ABOUT IAO GALLERY

The Institute for Art and Olfaction’s gallery is devoted to exhibitions, performances, installations and other expressions that make use of or engage with the medium of scent. The space includes a dedicated 154 square foot room within the IAO, and two window galleries that face the pedestrian street, Chung King Road.