Scent Fair Austin

An Art and Olfaction Experience
Date: Sunday, November 2, 2025
Time: 11 AM – 5 PM
Location: Future Front House, Austin, Texas
Admission: Tickets on Eventbrite

About the Event

Curated by Carlos Moreno of Barrio Pop Studio, Scent Fair Austin: Elemental is an immersive, day-long exploration of olfaction as a vital medium in contemporary art practice. The fair demonstrates how scent can carry memory, culture, and emotion, creating experiences that connect ancestral knowledge, ritual, and creative expression.

This year’s theme, Elemental, is inspired by Ana Mendieta’s Silueta series (1973–1980), engaging with the natural elements—earth, fire, water, and air. Taking place during Día de los Muertos, the fair foregrounds acts of remembrance, ancestral continuity, and the cyclical nature of life.

Through installations, scent activations, and participatory programs, visitors encounter olfaction as both medium and message, inviting reflection on how smell operates in contemporary art as a tool for cultural storytelling, material experimentation, and embodied experience.

What to Expect

• Two-person exhibition featuring Nam Joti Kaur Khalsa and Paloma Mayorga, exploring earth, air, and ancestral memory through botanical installations and participatory experiences

• Scent activations by Hannah Jackson (Acquired Taste), including interactive incense and journaling stations

• Public programs and engagement curated by Niru of Equity Through Art, including workshops and participatory experiences that deepen understanding of scent in art and ritual

• Premiere of an experimental short film by Jessie Rodriguez, layering sound, image, and atmosphere to explore scent, ritual, and the four classical elements

• Music and light refreshments, creating a welcoming, community-oriented atmosphere

Featured Public Programs

Hannah Jackson (Acquired Taste) – Designer of incense and home goods, leading interactive scent activations that engage visitors in writing and reflection.

Jessie Rodriguez – Cinematographer and visual artist presenting an experimental film commissioned for Scent Fair Austin, exploring olfaction as a narrative medium.

Niru Kumar (Equity Through Art) – Public programs curator participatory experiences that illuminate scent as a tool in contemporary art and cultural practice.

About Barrio Pop Studio

Barrio Pop Studio is a Latinx-owned art and apothecary studio based in Austin, TX. Founded by Carlos Moreno, the studio creates candles, wellness goods, and multisensory art experiences that explore Latinx culture, ritual, and storytelling through contemporary art practices, including olfactory-based work.

About the Venue

Future Front House is a dynamic East Austin space supporting contemporary art, community programming, and artist-led experimentation.

Scent Fair Austin is supported in part by the City of Austin Office of Arts, Culture, Music & Entertainment through the Nexus Award.