About Karena Ryan
Textile Artist | Storytelling Through Stitch
Hello, I’m Karena—an award-winning textile artist based in the west of Ireland. My work explores silence, memory, and the quiet endurance of women and children whose lives were shaped by the hidden systems of Irish society—those institutionalised in Magdalene Laundries, mother and baby homes, and industrial schools.
At the heart of my practice is a deep respect for these untold stories. I use hand embroidery to stitch faceless, delicate figures—deliberately anonymous, to honour the many whose names were lost or erased. My stitches are intentionally loose and tangled, echoing the fragility of memory and the unresolved trauma carried across generations. What was once a symbol of forced, numbing labour, I reclaim as an act of care, mindfulness, and quiet resistance.
I work with embroidery, felting, beading, and repurposed Irish textiles. Worn linens, vintage fabrics, and Irish wool—locally sourced—form the base of my pieces. These materials carry memory, domesticity, and a quiet strength that runs through my work.
The west of Ireland landscape—its bogs, stone walls, and soft, shifting light—also weaves through my work. Like the women I stitch, it is shaped by time, layered with meaning, and quietly enduring. I draw from vintage photographs and archival material, not to retell history, but to imagine what was felt and never spoken.
In recent years, my work has been recognised through several national awards, including the 2022 Future Makers Award, an Agility Award from the Arts Council of Ireland (2023), and Winner of the 2024 Irish Made Awards: Best Dressed. I’ve also been shortlisted for the 2024 Future Makers Awards and the Irish Made Awards (Textile Category).
Through my art, I don’t aim to speak for others, but to create space—for reflection, for dignity, and for listening.
Who gets remembered? Whose stories have we silenced? And how can the slowness of a stitch help us hear them now?
