Byron Armstrong

Art and Culture Journalist

About

Byron Armstrong

Byron Armstrong is a freelance writer and award-winning journalist who writes about arts, culture, and community. His writing appears in Esse arts + opinions, The Globe and Mail (Books), Whitehot Magazine, The National Gallery of Canada Magazine, and Arts Help.

Byron has authored curatorial essays for the transatlantic exhibition "When the Bread They Have Cast on the Waters Comes Floating Back" at The D’Aguilar Art Foundation (Nassau, Bahamas) and United Contemporary Gallery (Toronto, Canada), as well as the retrospective show, "Barbara Moore: Life, Lessons and Legacy" at Caliban Arts Theatre. In addition, Byron edited the catalogue essay for "Ilene Sova's "UNKNOWN RELATIVE" exhibition at John B. Aird Gallery for the CONTACT Photography Festival, co-written by curator and Executive Director Carla Garnet, and the artist. He was also a juror and co-curator of John B. Aird Gallery's 2024-2025 "Portraits" online exhibition and publication.

As a freelance journalist, Byron received a Canadian Ethnic Media (CEMA) award in 2022 for his Ricochet Media article exploring the over-policing and surveillance of Toronto's Black communities, two years after writing one of three articles that helped secure a CEMA Award for ByBlacks.com in 2020. Byron's stories "The Abstractions of Sam Gilliam" and "Peril: The World Through the Eyes of Stan Douglas" were selected as two of the National Gallery of Canada Magazine's Top 10 Articles of 2024.

In 2023, an excerpt from his upcoming novel was longlisted in the Top 100 of the 7th Annual Launch Pad Prose Competition, and in 2024 his poetry was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His literary work has been published in Heavy Feather Review, The Malahat Review, Decolonial Passage, and The Write Launch.

He currently resides in Toronto, Canada (Tkaronto) with his family.

Portfolio

Art & Design

Camille Turner: From Silence to Awakening (The National Gallery of Canada)

Earthbound: A Dark Sky Exhibit (Whitehot Magazine)

Gio Swaby in "Focus" at Art Toronto (Whitehot Magazine)

Interview with Cameron Welch (Whitehot Magazine)

Oluseye Ogunlesi-Black Exodus: Winter Arrival (Esse art & opinions)

Interview with Steven Schmid (Whitehot Magazine)

The Abstractions of Sam Gilliam (The National Gallery of Canada Magazine)

Peril-The world through the eyes of Stan Douglas (The National Gallery of Canada Magazine)

Kapwani Kiwanga: Breaking down walls to step into new beginnings (The National Gallery of Canada Magazine)

Barbara Moore: Life, Lessons and Legacy (Whitehot Magazine)

Bryan Espiritu: Passage at Cultural Goods Gallery (Whitehot Magazine)

She Work Hard For It: Hate Copy, Lido Pimienta, and Miss Me at Cultural Goods Gallery (Whitehot Magazine)

Interview with Moses Salihou (Whitehot Magazine)

Cradle to Hold Me: Benny Bing's Documentation of Black Motherhood Explores Maternal Health & Legacy (Whitehot Magazine)

Vanessa Dion Fletcher's Solo Show "Slow Lines" Invites The Viewer To Slow Down (Whitehot Magazine)

Nineteen Eighty-Five: Natia Lemay Goes Beneath The Surface in her First NYC Solo Show (Whitehot Magazine)

An Exhibition by William Ukoh Inaugurates The Launch of New Creative Space "HomeCourt" in Toronto (Whitehot Magazine)

Beyond Borders: This Transatlantic Exhibition Challenges Perceptions of Black Manhood With Black Portraiture (Whitehot Magazine)

Can Artists and Developers Get Along in Big Cities? In Toronto, It's Complicated (Arts Help)

South Asian Canadian Artist Hemangi Shroff Dismantles Patriarchy and Gender Norms (Arts Help)

Inspirations Studio Provides a Safe Space for Marginalized Women to Heal Through Pottery (Arts Help)

JAYU and the Human Rights Film Festival Tap Into The Power of Art To Create Social Change (Arts Help)

Only "The Collapsing of a Model" at COP26 Can Stop Climate Change (Arts Help)

Puzzle Lab and Benny Bing Support Local Artists with Sustainable Puzzles (Arts Help)

Del Foxton Upcycles Paper Waste Into Beautiful Wall Sculptures (Arts Help)

Aaron Li-Hill: Reimagining a World in Peril Through Art (NUVO Magazine)

In Conversation with Nike Onile of 800 SQ FT (NUVO Magazine)

BMO 1st Art: Banking on the Success of Emerging Artists (The Artist and The Viewer-Toronto Arts Newspaper)

Moses Salihou: Abstract Figurative at Mad One's Gallery (The Artist and The Viewer-Toronto Arts Newspaper)

Book Reviews

Author Zaliika Reid Benta's Frying Plantain avoids stereotypical 'angry Black woman' trope (The Globe and Mail)

Black Writers Matter: an anthology that captures the lives of these creatives (The Globe and Mail)

Book Review: PIECES OF A MAN - Jamel Shabazz (Whitehot Magazine)

Exhibition Text

When the Bread They Have Cast on the Waters Comes Floating Back: Gordon Shadrach & Kachelle Knowles
(The D'Aguilar Art Foundation & United Contemporary)

Culture & Community

Canada’s immigration system is failing undocumented LGBTQ+ migrants (Xtra)

Digging Deep (Where the Leaves Fall)

What Canada can learn from Brazil about returning land to Indigenous communities (Broadview Magazine)

Police apologies are meaningless when they actively invest in surveillance of Black people (Ricochet Media)

Canadian artist’s new album is an audible arc of Black faith (Broadview Magazine)

The Big Shortage (Foodism Toronto)

Polychromatic colours, irresistible art and Toronto's diversity are on full display at Gladstone House (Foodism Toronto)

Achieving Excellence (Past & Present Magazine)

Joe Friday Brings Southern Roots around the World and Back With Friday Roots (Cuisine Noir)

Beko the Food Mixologist Turns Up the Heat North of the Border (Cuisine Noir)

TasteToronto portfolio

ByBlacks.com portfolio

NOW Magazine portfolio

Literary

An Examination of My Mother's Life Through the Poetry of Nehassaiu deGannes: Music for Exile (Heavy Feather Review)

Seat at the Table (The Malahat Review)

Insight: Novel Excerpt (The Write Launch)

Poetry (Decolonial Passage)

Contact Me

byron@byron-armstrong.com