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, Rachel Hakimian Emenaker 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, she was the recipient of the Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship, and her works have been acquired by prominent collections.