Dreams Gather Here, an exhibition by Rachel Hakimian Emenaker
- Feb 2
- 2 min read
Updated: 30 minutes ago
February 17 - April 26, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 28, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Artist Talk: Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 6:30 PM
ReflectSpace at Glendale Central Library is pleased to present Dreams Gather Here, a solo exhibition by Rachel Hakimian Emenaker, on view from February 17 through April 26, 2026. The exhibition explores how the cultural memory of diasporic communities is preserved in the history of material objects. Moving across geographies that include Armenia, Syria, Russia, South America, and the United States, Emenaker’s work reflects on how people, objects, and gestures carry memory through time, forming the foundations of new futures and new cities.
With an American father and a Syrian Armenian mother, her childhood was spent in Suriname (South America) and Russia. She grew up multilingual and multicultural immersed in Dutch, Russian, Armenian, American and Surinamese cultures. Emenaker moved to the United States as an adult to start her university education in art.
Employing batik (wax and dye), sculpture, tile and other media, Emenaker’s work is a meditation on diasporic architecture. Fragments, inherited gestures, and long-traveled materials converge in sculptural and installation-based works that speak directly to communities like Los Angeles, Moscow, Kessab, and Van—cities that witness, absorb, and hold countless diasporic and migratory stories and dreams.
“For communities shaped by migration, grief, and rupture, dreaming can be a way of re-remembering and reimagining,” says Emenaker. “Dreams often become portable homes, a place to rest when permanence is impossible.”
Dreams Gather Here allows us that precious moment to pause and reflect on what dreams and home may mean to us.
Curated by Ara and Anahid Oshagan.
Exhibit-related Program:
Artist Talk: Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 6:30 PM. Join us for a walkthrough of the current exhibition with Rachel Hakimian Emenaker, followed by a conversation with the artist.
Accompanying Booklist:
This booklist is informed by Emenaker's rich background and what inspires her multi-faceted approach to multimedia storytelling, remembrance, and reimagining. Listed are library materials that range in subject matter from Surinamean fiction, batik dyeing techniques, to histories of displacement and erasure.
ReflectSpace
Glendale Central Library
222 East Harvard Street
Glendale, CA 91205
3 free hours of parking is available with validation at the Marketplace parking structure across the street from the Harvard Street entrance. Accessible parking is available on the east side of the building. View the Visit page for public transit information and open hours.