DAWN SPENCER HURWITZ

Dawn Spencer Hurwitz is a true underground force in niche perfumery and olfactory artform.  DSH, as she is called by her devoted following, has been working with aromatics for over 25 years and is a pioneer of the American indie perfumery movement. She has developed many innovative concept perfumes and worked with top designers to consult and create exclusive perfumes. Beginning her career as a painter, Dawn came to perfumery in 1991. As a synesthete, DSH developed her talent for creating perfumes based on fine art principles, and since the early nineties, began developing her innovative lines of ready-to-wear artisan perfumes under her own label, DSH Perfumes.  Most recently, DSH has celebrated the launch of DAWN Perfumes at Isetan, BARNEYS NEW YORK / Tokyo, and TOMORROWLAND with Japanese design partners, Undulate Labs.

As an olfactory artist DSH has had multiple one-person and group shows of her multi-sensory art (paintings and aromas) in Boulder, CO.  Her work “Colorado” for American Perfumer won an Art + Olfaction Award in the Independent category in 2019, and she has been a multiple finalist for the Art + Olfaction Awards in other categories.  In 2015, DSH was a finalist in the  Sadakichi award for her experimental collection “CHROMA”, a synesthetic / fragrance of colors project;  in 2016 for the Artisan Perfume of the Year award for Albino (A Study in White), and again for the 2017 Artisan Perfume A + O award for Onycha.    

DSH often collaborates with art institutions such as Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, The Dairy Center for the Arts, and Denver Art Museum.  

At her Boulder, Colorado studio (The Essense Studio) Dawn has also founded “The ArtScent Museum”, a small fragrance museum housing her large collection of antique and vintage perfumes, bottles, objet d’art, and packages spanning the turn of the 20th Century to today.  Her passion for the fragrant masterpieces of the past and examples of aromatic art form are on display via curated shows and by appointment.