London-based artist Celia Pym has been mending clothes since 2007. Working with garments that belong to individuals as well as items in museum archives, she has broad experience with stories of damage, from moth holes to accidents with fire. Her most recent major project was to teach a whole primary school – over 500 children – aged 4-11 years old how to darn a sock. Exploring resilience and joy in repair and mending.

Her mending philosophy? To explore the varied evidence of damage and how repair can draw attention to the places where garments and cloth wear down and grow thin. ‘Darning consists of small acts of care,’ she says, ‘and paying close attention.’

Selected exhibitions/events: Puzzle Pieces, Gojozaka Shimizu Gallery, Kyoto, Japan (2026); Mega Mending, Moderna Museet, Malmø, Sweden (2026); Perfection: a question of repair, co-curated with Kathryn Gremley Penland Gallery, NC, USA (2025); SOCKS: the art of care and repair, NOW gallery, London (solo) (2024) and Threads, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol (2023).

Pym is an Associate Lecturer in Textiles at the Royal College of Art; she collaborates regularly with knitwear designer, Siri Johansen at Waste Yarn Project – together they are WYP PYM; and published two books ‘On Mending: Stories of Damage and Repair’ (2023) and ‘SOCKS: Imaginative Mending’ (2026).

Contact

celia@celiapym.com

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