New Sensation
12 June - 26 July 2026
New Sensation
Lauren Jaye Carter
Lauren Jaye Carter, Stormfruit (detail), 2025, Print collage on paper, 50 x 24cm. Image courtesy the artist.
"The idea that AI can engage with sensory memory is an absurdity, yet it can hallucinate vivid and evocative text depictions of smell."
- Lauren Jaye Carter
New Sensation combines artist Lauren Jaye Carter’s love of printmaking and perfumery through a playful investigation of human sensory perception and scent memory. Using linocut and monoprint techniques, the collection of prints reflects the olfactory experiences unique to North Queensland, inspired by the three-tiered structure of fragrance — top, heart, and base notes — and the intersection of colour, scent and abstraction.
In this project, Carter highlights the limitations of AI to interpret sensory information and elicit human sensory memory responses. AI can simulate sight (through facial recognition mapping) and sound (via cochlear implants), but it cannot replicate the sense of smell. It can, however, hallucinate vivid and evocative text depictions of olfactory experiences. Drawing parallels with visually rich language and sometimes absurd fragrance descriptions used in perfume literature, despite perfume being inherently invisible, Carter raises the question: how might olfactory experiences be translated into an analogue, non-literary, visual medium such as printmaking?
Exhibitions launch
6pm Friday 12 June 2026
Speeches from approx. 6:30pm
Free entry | Bookings not required
Umbrella Floortalks
9:30am Saturday 13 June 2026
Lauren Jaye Carter & Hannah Murray
Full details here
Scent Memory Workshop
12:30-3:30pm Saturday 13 June 2026
with Lauren Jaye Carter | $95 - $115
Full details here
Lauren Jaye Carter is a printmaker based in Gimuy / Cairns; best known for her delicately constructed relief print collages. She graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Naarm / Melbourne, 2015, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in Printmaking. Carter has held committee positions with InkMasters Cairns (QLD) and the Print Council of Australia (VIC). She has held solo exhibitions in Melbourne and North Queensland and has exhibited in print-based group shows across Australia. Her prints are held in collections and print folios at the Australian Print Workshop, Print Council of Australia, National Art School, Curtin University (Boorloo / Perth), RMIT University (Naarm / Melbourne), and Townsville City Council, as well as in private collections in Australia and New Zealand. She was awarded the Collie Print Trust Award scholarship from the Australian Print Workshop and has since facilitated relief printing workshops for InkMasters Cairns, Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts, Cairns Regional Council, NorthSite Contemporary Arts and Murky Waters Studio.
Also on display during this period
All Exhibitions12 June -
26 July 2026
Open Hours
Tues - Fri: 9am-5pm
Sat - Sun: 9am-1pm
Gallery closed Mondays, public holidays and during exhibition install weeks.
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Contact
408 Flinders Street,
Gurambilbarra / Townsville,
Qld, 4810 Australia
PO Box 2394,
Gurambilbarra / Townsville,
Qld, 4810 Australia
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Acknowledgement of Country
Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts respectfully acknowledges the Wulgurukaba of Gurambilbarra and Yunbenun and the surrounding groups of our region - Bindal, Gugu Badhun, Nywaigi, Warrgamay, Bandjin and Gudjal - as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather, share and celebrate local creative practice. We pay our respects to Elders past and present. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the first people of Australia. They have never ceded sovereignty and remain strong in their enduring connection to land and Culture.
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Acknowledgements
Umbrella is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, part of the Department of Education, and the Visual Art, Craft and Design Framework, an initiative of the Australian, state and territory governments. | Umbrella is supported by the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation and receives funding from Creative Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund. | Townsville City Council is a funding partner of Umbrella's program. | Vetta Creative is Umbrella's fortieth anniversary creative partner.
