From Memory to A Sign من ذكرى إلى علامة
by Dana El Masri
Exhibition Dates: September 4 – October 23, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, September 4, 2026 from 6-8pm
Open Hours: IAO Gallery is open fridays from 1 to 5pm and by appointment.
The IAO Gallery is pleased to host Dana El Masri’s exhibition: From Memory to A Sign من ذكرى إلى علامة.
This exhibition gathers works created from 2009 to 2026; a constellation of pieces in dialogue with each other across time.
Each work forms a living archive of memory, imagination, and material. The space unfolds as a multi-sensory playground, a room of inner workings, wonder and expression. Foraged fragments from nature, collected across countries and years, merge with memory to reveal how identity is built from many specific and special parts.
Through ceramic, flowers, sound, and scent, the exhibition invites us to rediscover traces of home in faraway places, and to feel how memory can be both fragile and rooted. An act of remembrance and rediscovery.
Artist Statement
“I want to use olfaction to question what we call ‘exotic,’ treating fragrance as a vehicle for navigating layered geographies and displaced narratives. Smell becomes my tool for building intimate temporal landscapes and moments of growth and self-reflection. I care about how scents make us feel, seen, and how they can bring us together”
– Dana El Masri
Pictured: Bou’Hanamiya (2023), Dana El Masri, acrylic and gold paint on canvas
About Dana El Masri
Dana El Masri is a perfumer, interdisciplinary artist, lecturer, storyteller, and writer. Rooted in her Egyptian-Lebanese heritage, she was born in Budapest and raised in Dubai.
With a BA in Communication Studies, and trained at GIP in Grasse in 2010, she has also lived in Montreal, New York, and now Los Angeles. She owns and operates, Jazmin Saraï, an artisan line of small-batch, unisex perfumes and oils exploring the intersection of scent, music, and culture, established in 2014.
Dana’s work bridges cultures and media to create multi-sensory, synesthetic experiences focused on social interaction, cultural belonging, and representation. Her goal is to
replace the euro-centric lens of perfumery with multifaceted narratives. Her scented installations and residencies have been presented globally, including Amsterdam, Cairo, London, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York , Toronto, and Tunis.
Dana has collaborated with artists, musicians, lifestyle brands, and hotels on cross-modal projects. She conducts olfactory workshops on SWANA social rituals and has presented
theories on cultural imprints and orientalism in perfumery since 2017.
She provides cultural consulting, and co-founded the Diverse Talent in Perfumery database. An IAO lecturer and five-time AO judge, her writing has been published in the
internationally and online, and is a A Jasmine Award and Perfumed Plume winner.
Learn more about Dana’s work: www.danaelmasri.com | www.jazminsarai.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.
IAO Gallery is open fridays from 1 to 5pm and by appointment.
Please contact us at hello@artandolfaction.com to request an appointment.
The IAO Gallery is accessible by wheelchair. However, please note that there is a one inch cement lip at the entry to the IAO.