Irene Jena Karthik is an artist based in London, originally from India. Her work unfolds through painting, drawing, printmaking, and pastels — a space where gesture and stillness meet. She is drawn to the moments between inner experience and the outer world, where something quiet begins to shift or surface.
Her practice is both intuitive and reflective. It grows from observation, from being moved by light, form, or memory — and from a deep curiosity about belonging, rootedness, and the delicate ways we are connected to the world we inhabit. Her work explores the quiet transitions between the lived world and the interior spaces we carry within.
Working with oil, acrylic, charcoal, and printmaking, she uses gesture, mark-making, texture, and intuition to uncover traces of belonging. Irene is interested in rootedness — in the ways we anchor ourselves while remaining porous to the world around us. The act of embodied entwining with one’s surroundings continues to influence her process. Nature and its quiet, embodied presence form a vital part of her exploration, shaping both her imagery and her philosophy of making.
She has studied art through a range of formal and independent programmes, including the Royal Drawing School Spring Intensive (2024), Art Academy Summer School for Painting (2022), and Dulwich Art Group Painting Course (2023). She continues to deepen her practice through workshops and collective explorations — most recently with Florence Peake in Material and Meaning (2025).
