Brief Biography

Brian Goeltzenleuchter is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of olfactory art, social engagement, and image making. Goeltzenleuchter has exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany; the Art Gallery of Alberta, Canada; Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Städtische Galerie Bremen, Germany; Centrum Beeldende Kunst, The Netherlands; and Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Canada. He has held residencies at Banff Centre, Canada; Centrum Beeldende Kunst, The Netherlands; Sculpture Space, New York; and Institute for Art and Olfaction, Los Angeles. He is the Darlene Shiley Honors Faculty Fellow in the Weber Honors College, and Research Fellow at the Institute for Public and Urban Affairs, San Diego State University.

Detailed Biography

Brian Goeltzenleuchter (pronounced guilt-sin-lighter) is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of olfactory art, social engagement, and image making. Goeltzenleuchter is widely recognized as a leading figure in the field of olfactory art. His art and writing treat air as an artistic medium and breathing as a vehicle for aesthetic and critical contemplation. His socially engaged projects investigate themes of identity, ecology, and the boundaries between humans, institutions, and the natural world. His approach bridges art and public health, and has influenced such diverse fields as environmental studies, aesthetics, cultural geography, and disability studies.

As a result of his interest in complex and wide-reaching bodies of knowledge, Goeltzenleuchter has collaborated with diverse communities within and outside of the artworld. In addition to deep collaboration with art institutions and members of related subcultures, Goeltzenleuchter actively pursues ventures that fall outside of artworld conventions. He has worked with amateur cooks (By Means of Smoke, 2022), medical students (5 Cocktails, 2022), refugees (Scents of Exile, 2019), museum patrons (Sillage, 2016), engineers (Olfactory Memoirs, 2015), criminologists and technologists (The Art | Crime Archive, 2013), avant-pop musicians (Terre Sauvage, 2012), poets (A Poetry Olfaction, 2015; Smelling the City, 2011), research scientists (When to throw a painting to a drowning man, 2011), virtual reality designers (Second Scape, 2007), and venture capitalists (A Shareholder’s Meeting, 2000).

Brian Goeltzenleuchter earned his MFA from the University of California San Diego. He has been artist-in-residence at Banff Centre, Canada; Centrum Beeldende Kunst, The Netherlands; Sculpture Space, New York; and Institute for Art and Olfaction, Los Angeles. He served as Associate Professor of Art and Director of the MFA Program at Central Washington University. He is currently the Darlene Shiley Honors Faculty Fellow at the Weber Honors College, and Research Fellow at the Institute for Public and Urban Affairs, San Diego State University. He also serves on the faculty of Eureka Institute for Translational Medicine, a non-profit foundation with educational and research objectives in the field of International Translational Medicine.

Selected projects include: Scents of Exile, various venues (2019-2024); Sillage, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (2016); Volatile!, The Poetry Foundation, Chicago (2015); Sillage, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Los Angeles (2014); Adaptive Equipment, Lust Gallery, Vienna, Austria (2011); c (pronounced /k/) Wellness Centre, Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Canada (2010); c Boutique, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2010); Sponge X Sponge, Colorado State University (2007); Institutional Wellbeing, Centrum Beeldende Kunst, The Netherlands (2006); Who’s not for sale, Banff Centre, Canada (2006).