Kristina (Arark) Manucharyan is a multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection of painting, ceramics, and textiles. Her practice intertwines Armenian craft traditions, mythology, and visual explorations of memory and its transformations.
Kristina’s work revolves around layering and the sensation of déjà vu — her pieces are rich in texture, pattern, and hidden graphic structures. In ceramics, she merges silhouettes from Armenian folk tales with everyday scenes, creating a sense of cultural déjà vu. In her textile works, she constructs tactile cartographies, turning embroidery into topographies of personal and collective memory.
Previously exhibited as Kristina Manucharyan, since 2025 she has been using the artistic name Arark — a shortened form of her mother’s surname Ararktsyan, which for her became a way to emphasize personal and familial connection within her artistic research on identity.
Alongside her artistic practice, Kristina works as an animator and illustrator, collaborating with the London-based restaurant project Lita. She is also the founder of Sketching Club, where she hosts drawing sessions and workshops. In 2025, she led a series of masterclasses at MAMM, exploring the connection between life drawing and embodied memory.
Her works have been exhibited in Barcelona at the Hub/Art gallery pop-up by the Sensity project, in Paris, and in Yerevan, where she completed a residency at Tumo Studios. Graduate of the Moscow School of Contemporary Art.
Selected exhibitions: Araspel — solo show at the Armenian Museum in Moscow; Poles of One Summer (with Anna Antonova, A-House); Shadows Disappear at Noon (BLAR Cultural Project); participation in the Blazar Art Fair with The Dar Store. In 2025, Kristina took part in the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts on a grant, presenting a new painting cycle exploring the theme of identity.
