Rachel Hakimian Emenaker

Rachel Hakimian Emenaker, born in 1992 in Los Angeles where she currently lives and works, is an artist whose practice deeply engages with the complexities of diasporic identity and memory. Drawing from her Armenian Syrian heritage, American citizenship, and an upbringing in Suriname and Russia, her work navigates the intersections of diverse cultural narratives, aesthetics, and histories. Her art focuses on architecture and space as a vessel for collective memory, exploring how both can be markers of migration and erasure. Spanning across mediums from batik fabrics to stacked ceramics and monumental beadwork, her work combines traditional Eastern and Western art forms with craft practices. By recreating symbolic spaces, in which erasure of collective memory and experience of migration collide, she reflects on the global history of trade routes and their influence on cultural exchange. A recent graduate of UCLA’s MFA program, she has shown her works in solo and group exhibitions including in the "25 under 25" exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego. Most recently, Rachel Hakimian Emenaker had a solo show at Luce Gallery in Turin, Italy and her works are currently shown at the Grand Central Arts Center in Santa Ana. She was the recipient of the Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship in 2024. Her work will be featured this month in Issue #175 of New American Paintings, curated by renowned art critic Jerry Saltz. Her works have been acquired by several collectors internationally, including Beth Rudin DeWoody for the Bunker Art Space in Palm Beach, Florida.