PHILADELPHIA (AP) — When it comes to art, usually the eyes have it: Paintings, drawings and sculpture are visual feasts that inspire senses and emotion. But a new exhibit makes the provocative suggestion that art is right under your nose, too.

“Scent is Life,” open through July 1 at the Esther M. Klein Gallery, features 16 interactive installations and 106 scents in all.

For the show’s collaborators — award-winning perfumer Christopher Brosius and scientists at the renowned Monell Chemical Senses Center — it makes perfect scents.

“Vision is a very conscious process. Smell happens every time we breathe, whether we are aware of it or not,” Brosius said. “It’s sort of like a computer program that’s always running in the background.”

The goal is to make people seeing (or smelling, to be more accurate) the exhibit more aware of their own sense of smell and the power it has. The visuals are minimal; it’s the olfactory notes that are on display.

“Smell is the primordial sense,” said Mark Friedman, associate director of Monell, the Philadelphia-based facility devoted to research of taste and smell. “It’s actually the sense most closely tied to emotion; people often have powerful responses to specific odors.”

Conversely, people who lose their sense of smell can experience a marked drop in their quality of life because scent is powerfully intertwined with feelings of pleasure and well-being, he said.

For one person, the scent of narcissus may remind them of a beloved grandmother who has died. For another, the smell of rubber cement can stir pleasant memories of childhood.

“There’s a quality of art where somebody can look at a painting and have a personal experience that’s not like anyone else’s,” gallery curator Dan Schimmel said. “Christopher is an artist who uses scent as a medium.”

One part of the exhibit, called “Autobiography,” invites people to sniff from vials of scents with names including Melting Snow, Crayon, Dirt, Burning Leaves, Old Fur Coat, Doll Head and Mitten. The odors are common to many people’s lives but we all have unique memories that go along with them, Brosius said.

Another section, called “Interpretation,” shows how the same scent — a lily — can elicit different feelings and memories in different contexts. The first grouping of three scents evokes a field of lilies; the second, a perfume redolent with lilies; the third, an arrangement of lilies at a funeral. (One of the eerily accurate scents in the third group is called Coffin.)

“Pink Box That Smells Green” is just that. People who stick their heads inside a box the color of bubble gum don’t expect it to smell like freshly cut grass — the confusing mix illustrates how our senses can make their own assumptions.

There’s also “Day at the Beach,” which takes sniffers on their own personal journey of recollection, from Car Interior and Asphalt to Boardwalk and Seashell. A grouping of blankets scented with different kinds of vanilla — from the real thing to synthetic versions and vanilla-scented cheese cake and pipe tobacco — points out how the scent is universally recognized regardless of the many varieties.

All the scents are displayed in long-necked flasks to discourage them from commingling. And between installations, ground coffee is available for sniffing as a means to “clear the olfactory palate,” Brosius said.

Brosius, who grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch country and currently lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., credits his childhood scent memories — dandelions, river stones, snow, and his favorite aunt’s cookies — with setting the stage for his career.