vinaigrette, opening this Saturday 1/24, is a two-city show running concurrently at Romance and Antonia Oliver’s Iowa in Brooklyn. Though there are no literal perfumes in the show, the themes of intimacy and beauty refer back to the scent locket or “vinaigrette” of the 19th century.
Sasha Miasnikova (b. 1999, New York, NY) and Zora Moniz (b. 1995, Oakland, CA) share this fascination. This won’t be the first time Romance features fragrance thematically in its gallery, either. Just for You, the recent display of work by Tasneem Sarkez, had a piece in the gallery’s office space made up of a lineup of perfume bottles, drawing from the fragrance bottles on the shelf of a smoke shop.
Miasnikova and Moniz shared some thoughts with Petrichor in advance of the opening on fragrance, what it was like to collaborate with both each other and two gallerists, and their relationships to scent as memory.
Petrichor: This exhibition is both a collaboration between two galleries and a collaboration between two artists. How did the concept come about and what was that dialogue like?
Sasha Miasnikova: A lot of it came about circumstantially, where in 2024 I was doing a presentation with Antonia (Iowa) at NADA Miami, and Zora was showing with Margaret (Romance). Zora and I were friends through mutual friends in New York, and would see each other around, as we did Antonia and Margaret. Antonia’s booth ended up being adjacent to Margaret’s; Zora and I stayed together in Miami. It all happened organically, and we were out one of the last nights to an Argentinean steakhouse and there came the idea of collaborating the four of us. A few months later the galleries reached out to us asking if we were genuinely interested in working on a collaborative show in both cities and that’s when we really started thinking about what it could look like.
Zora Moniz: This sort of exchange was communicated through many different streams, but Sasha and I tried to visit each other’s studios as much as possible, while living in very different neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Both of our studios are in our homes. Even if we were just coming over to eat dinner or drink tea and just see something the other person was experimenting with, it was a part of working together and absorbing the others thoughts and what they were interested in looking at. A lot of this exchange also happened through a flurry of text messages and thoughts and images shared.
Photo by Sam Judge
What resonated with you about the concept of the 19th century scent locket?
SM: I like the idea of objects that can kinda straddle the line of being both ultra specific and multifunctional. Different forms of scent devices do that for me, there’s so many versions of the same principle: containers hanging off a belt, perfume plushies, I just learned about fragrance crayons. And the choice to filter an experience with something you own based on intention or mood is super satisfying. The objects or clothing rendered in my paintings are found through a similar discovery process, and when they trigger a usefulness, by color or pattern or anecdotal interest. “Flanker” in perfumery means like a spin-off variation of a product while keeping the same foundational profile, which is almost analogous to a fun way to see or engage with all the other objects we have.
ZM: Originally, Sasha described to me what it was and also some other aromatic tools and objects that she was interested in doing something with it, then I started researching pomanders and vinaigrettes and other containers for scent and I think it became more of an interest its form and its function as a container to work from rather than the actual exact object itself. More about this orb, the concept of embodiment, something that contained scent to protect and transport, but really just conveys an idea. What someone might associate that scent with. We used this form to create an entire series of “accessories” and experiments in different mediums that sort of relate to the vinaigrette. The hacky sacks concealing but also displaying their insides, some with scented materials, soap balls on waxed cord that was also scented by Sasha, paper mache maracas…
36 x 27 in.
Scent is a totally different sense to work with than vision. How does the work in the show explore a multi-sensory experience through different kinds of stimuli?
SM: Scent felt like a natural accessory to the rest of the show because of recent work I had made under Room Service- myself and Tulane Eichhorn made travel fragrance oils, room spray, and an eau de toilette perfume. Producing joint sculptures was an idea both Zora and I were interested in, as we both enjoyed making personal crafts, and have had some sculptural elements exhibited alongside our paintings in the past. This show has definitely let me consider that part of the practice more and it’s been great to collaborate with Zora all the way through that.
ZM: When I first came over to Sasha’s I smelled her expansive – and concise! perfume collection – which is such a playful and intimate way to start to understand and get to know someone. It helped me to begin to have a more active interest in scent, how I wanted to use it in an intentional way, and that I wanted to collect scents that I could wear for different reasons.
For me, scent has always been this abstract thing where I associate smell with certain places or memories, but talking to someone with a sustained interest in scent helped me understand that scent can be used to create a memory of a place or your own body, like an extended part of you that isn’t seen but communicates some likeness of you in a way. It’s really magical in that sense.
My grandmother had a small goat farm in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and as a kid I spent many summers there. She made cheese but also made goat’s milk soaps. I have a distinct memory of an armoire in our hallway back in Berkeley, saggy and oil stained from stacks and stacks of rectangles of her soaps, the towels smelled like vetiver, bay, mint, rose hips, whatever type of soap was being stored – we never had to buy soap!
I thought about this as a great opportunity to use my most powerful scent memory, these soaps in my childhood armoire, as an aspect in the show. Going home for the holiday to make soap with my grandmother (who now lives in Oakland) and then use the soap as a sculpting medium for the vinaigrette form, and also with a distinct sensory aesthetic function.
What was most challenging and most rewarding about putting the exhibition together?
ZM: I think navigating four view points and opinions that I respected and really wanted to see come through in the exhibitions. I kept asking myself how we could make our work in separate studios, then marry our painting and sculptural practices in one exhibition that will be seen by audiences in two different cities and two different spaces?
SM: We were working between three time zones at one point, but I felt like it was a lucky match! The conversations we were having felt very generative and exploratory. It was a new challenge for all of us.
What scents are most attractive to you? Favorite perfume?
ZM: I drop lavender essential oil in my bed at night as a sleep aid, use Nemat White Musk Fragrance Oil as deodorant, Room Service Love Song Bedroom Mist used to scent my clothes (created by Sasha and Tulane). I’ve recently been wearing an unlabeled dropper bottle of unisex Tom Ford Oud Wood decanted from a drumming bottle, a gift from my friend Alice that was supposed to be for my brother. It smells like dirt and vanilla and bark to me. I usually like to layer any scent I’m wearing with D.S & Durga I Don’t Know What, a fragrance enhancer for layering scents. I usually don’t wear all of these elements at once, but always the lavender oil at night.
SM: Diptyque 34 Boulevard Saint-Germain, Clarins Eau Dynamisante, Commes des Garcons 2 (woman), Clinique Aromatics Elixir, Nuxe Oil.
vinaigrette opens at Romance (155 N. Craig Street, Suite 110) Saturday 1/24. Parking for the opening can be found for free at Oakland Catholic across the street or in the adjacent garage for $5.
PETRICHOR 
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