Bio

Syrus Marcus Ware is a Vanier scholar, visual artist, activist, curator, and educator. Syrus uses painting, installation and performance to explore social justice frameworks and Black activist culture. His work has been shown widely, including in a solo show at Grunt Gallery, Vancouver; the 2019 and 2022 Toronto Biennial of Art; the Bentway’s Safety in Public Spaces Initiative in 2020; and group shows at the Never Apart in Montreal; Art Gallery of Ontario; the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery; Art Gallery of York University; the Art Gallery of Windsor; and at Nuit Blanche 2017. His performance works have been part of festivals across Canada, including at Cripping the Stage (Harbourfront Centre, 2016, 2019), Complex Social Change (University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, 2015) and Decolonizing and Decriminalizing Trans Genres (University of Winnipeg, 2015). He is the co-editor of the best-selling Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada (URP, 2020). Marcus Ware is part of the PDA (Performance Disability Art) Collective and co-programmed Crip Your World: An Intergalactic Queer/POC Sick and Disabled Extravaganza as part of Mayworks 2014. Syrus is cofounder of Black Lives Matter – Canada and a co-curator of Blackness Yes!/Blockorama. He has won several awards, including the TD Diversity Award in 2017, was voted “Best Queer Activist” by NOW Magazine (2005), and was awarded the Steinert and Ferreiro Award in 2012. Syrus earned his PhD at York University in the Faculty of Environmental Studies and is Assistant Professor at the School of the Arts at McMaster University.

https://www.syrusmarcusware.com/

@syrusmarcus