Anoush Bargamian opens first solo show at AIR Gallery
AIR Studio + Gallery is presenting the first solo show of Chicago artist Anoush Bargamian, “Stories We Carry: Memories, Color, Childhood, & Belonging.” Bargamian’s exhibition brings together encaustic paintings from “Pajama Party” and “Scattered” series, along with additional works exploring memory, identity, belonging and displacement.
The show’s opening event was held on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, from 5 to 8 p.m. at AIR Gallery, 348 Tudor Court, Glencoe, and the show runs Oct. 2-31. Bargamian will present an artist talk on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at AIR. Bargamian is a member of AIR Studio.
The exhibition addresses childhood memories as well as inherited histories that have shaped identity across generations. The works examine personal and collective experiences and themes of memory, family and place.
Bargamian said, “Memory inspires my work — from childhood and family to the places and stories we carry with us. I love working with color, texture and gesture to create paintings that feel layered, tactile and alive. The process is both meditative and playful, and each painting becomes a discovery — something unexpected that invites you to look a little longer.”
Some of the works differ from Bargamian’s earlier paintings and draw on childhood memories. In “Pajama Party,” she uses repeated marks, circles, dots and gestures associated with childhood play. Bargamian describes the process of making the works as rhythmic and meditative.
The “Pajama Party” series draws on themes of sleepovers, friendship, imagination and childhood memories. Other encaustic works in the exhibition continue Bargamian’s use of color, texture, atmosphere and abstraction. Some use saturated color and prominent marks, while others rely on more restrained variations in tone, surface and light.
The “Scattered” series draws on Bargamian’s family history and the impact of the 1915 Armenian Genocide under the Ottoman Empire and the enduring history of the Armenian diaspora. The works include pomegranate seeds scattered across their surfaces in shades ranging from crimson to dark red. Bargamian uses the scattered seeds to represent the dispersal of a people while carrying the symbolism of the pomegranate within Armenian culture.
Bargamian works in encaustic, building layers of beeswax, oil, color and marks while revealing and concealing portions of the underlying surface. In the exhibition, she uses this process in works addressing childhood, family history, place, memory and identity.
