Brief Biography

Brian Goeltzenleuchter is a research-based conceptual artist working at the intersection of social engagement, olfactory art, and drawing/printmaking. 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

Artist, writer, and educator Brian Goeltzenleuchter was born in San Diego in 1976.  Brian’s work investigates the use-value of art and the intersectional roles that people and institutions play in shaping the social sphere. As a result of his interest in complex and wide-reaching bodies of knowledge, Brian has collaborated with diverse communities within and outside of the artworld.  

Through an artistic practice that uses analog and digital technologies to mediate the senses of sight, sound, touch, and smell, Brian designs situations which explore the dynamics between individuals, cities, and institutions. His current artwork considers the way in which personal and cultural narratives can be expressed through the sense of smell. He creates maps—not for way-finding, but for place-making—as a means of locating the “self” and the “other” in the city. Brian's socially engaged art has been critically celebrated for its pioneering role in the nascent field of olfactory art.

Collaboration and community are key elements in Brian's practice. In addition to deep collaboration with art institutions and members of related subcultures, Brian actively pursues ventures that fall outside the art world. 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 in 2001 at University of California San Diego. From 2002 - 2008 he was Associate Professor of Art and Director of the MFA Program at Central Washington University. He has held residencies at the Institute for Art and Olfaction, Los Angeles, Banff Centre, Canada, Sculpture Space, New York, and Centrum Beeldende Kunst, The Netherlands.  He is Research Fellow at the Institute for Public and Urban Affairs and the Darlene Shiley Honors Faculty Fellow in the Weber Honors College, 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).