About the Artist

All small things must evolve slowly…in a quiet room

The Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard, 1964

Caren Garfen is an award-winning artist whose meticulous hand stitching and thought-provoking practice have gained international recognition. Combining found objects with painstaking embroidery, she transforms everyday materials into powerful metaphors that explore memory, identity, injustice and the human condition. Her quietly compelling works invite viewers to pause, reflect and engage with difficult conversations.

For many years, Caren explored gender politics and the lives of women in the 21st century, addressing themes including work-life balance, body image and identity. Following four years of intensive research into eating disorders, she produced a significant body of work examining their devastating impact. Since 2019, her practice has centred on the Holocaust and the persistence of global antisemitism. Through rigorous research and the slow, meditative process of hand stitching, she creates works that bear witness to history while encouraging reflection on prejudice, remembrance and moral responsibility in the present day.

Caren’s accessible yet challenging artwork has been exhibited throughout the UK, across Europe, and in the USA, Canada, Australia and Japan. It is held in public and private collections, and has been featured in numerous books, journals and exhibition catalogues.

I recommend Caren Garfen’s work without any hesitation, and her work on the Holocaust is astonishing.

Jo Andrews, Founder of Haptic & Hue, former British television journalist

Caren Garfen is an embroiderer: a consummate crafts woman, a meticulous researcher, a custodian of memory and names, and of the sacred traces of people’s lives. She is also an original thinker and dedicated artist.

Claudia Clare, Curator & ceramicist

Minute writing is emblematic of craft and discipline; while the materiality of the product is diminished, the labor involved multiplies, and so does the significance of the total object. On Longing, Susan Stewart, 1993

Recognition

Caren Garfen’s work is a remarkable translation of meticulous research into meticulous outcomes. Working in the most painstaking hand-stitch, she re-presents this information in a manner that is direct, understandable and completely humane in her use of the tools and the domestic/work garment. Professor Lesley Millar, Cloth & Memory 2