Meet

Kareen Weir

,

The Artist Making Language Loud.

A multidisciplinary artist who transforms Jamaican Patwa into unapologetic art.

From Spanish Town to Toronto, her work spans sculpture, murals, and text-based installations — always amplifying memory, identity, and the Black experience.

Woman with dreadlocks smiling and laughing among green leafy plants.

roots & Education

Kareen’s journey begins in Jamaica, where she trained in Sculpture at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. Every piece she creates carries the rhythm, resilience, and brilliance of her homeland.

Two people sitting and talking on a couch in front of a colorful graffiti wall that says 'Yuh Deh Yah' with large question marks.

Canada & Murals

In 2014, Kareen brought her voice to Canada — expanding her canvas from gallery spaces to public walls. Her murals now speak across Toronto, for communities and organizations like the NIA Centre and Womxn Paint.

Black woman with styled hair and hoop earrings performing on stage, sitting on a bench beside a music stand with papers.

Recognition & Mentorship

Her debut in Canada was at the Art Gallery of Ontario in The Scratch and Mix Project. Along the way, she apprenticed under Raymond Watson and trained at the Watah Theatre with d’bi.young anitafrika — shaping her into the artist she is today.

Group of people posing in front of a tunnel wall painted with a large rainbow mural on a sunny day.

Collective & Legacy

Kareen is a proud member of the Black Wimmin Artist collective. From The Feast at the AGO to ongoing collaborations, she continues to celebrate the resilience and creativity of Black voices through community and art.

Artist statement

My work explores memory, identity, and representation through the Black experience with Jamaican Patwa at its core. I use language as both shield and weapon.

See my work

Illustration of a person stamping the word 'PATWA' repeatedly onto a globe, symbolizing spreading or marking the language globally.

Our mission

WeirTings exists to be a safe space for speech, to empower individuals, especially within the Black diaspora - through culturally rooted fashion and art that celebrates Patwa as a legitimate, intelligent, and expressive language of legacy.

Our mission is to make Patwa loud, honour our ancestors, ignite voices, and reclaim identity through artful expressions.

We are breaking colonial linguistic bonds and paying homage to the ancient memory in our tongues by bringing Patwa to the forefront of art, fashion and storytelling.
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