Syrus Marcus Ware is an Assistant Professor at the School of the Arts, McMaster University. His research creation practice spans drawing, installation, and performance and considers social justice frameworks and Black activist culture. His work has been shown widely, including solo shows at Tangled Art + Disability in 2022 (Random Access Memory), Grunt Gallery in 2018 (2068:Touch Change) and Wil Aballe Art Projects in 2021 (Irresistible Revolutions). His work has been featured as part of the inaugural Toronto Biennial of Art in both 2019 and 2022 in conjunction with the Ryerson Image Centre (Antarctica; Ancestors, Do You Read Us?: Dispatches from the Future and MBL:Freedom), as well as for the Bentway’s Safety in Public Spaces initiative in 2020 (Radical Love).

Syrus' recent curatorial projects include And the Spaces Between Us Smiled for Nuit Blanche, Central zone (City of Toronto, 2024), That’s So Gay (Gladstone Hotel, 2016-2019), Re:Purpose (Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2014) and The Church Street Mural Project (Church-Wellesley Village, 2013). Syrus was co-curator of The Cycle, a two-year disability arts performance initiative of the National Arts Centre (NAC) with Dr. Sarah Garton Stanley. He is part of the inaugural curatorial team for the NAC's National Creation Fund.

Syrus is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter- Canada and the Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism. He is the innovator of the Wildseed Black Arts Fellowship, the Put Your Roots Down Residency and the Black August Residency. Syrus is a past co-curator of Blackness Yes!/Blockorama, the largest and longest running programming at the Pride Toronto Festival.

Syrus has won several awards, including the Mayworks Labour Award (2017) and the TD Diversity Award (2017). Syrus was voted “Best Queer Activist” by NOW Magazine (2005) and was awarded the Steinert and Ferreiro Award (2012). He is a board member for the Tegan and Sara Foundation, and board treasurer for Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism. Syrus holds a doctorate from York University in the Faculty of Environmental Studies. He is the co-editor of the best-selling Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada (URP, 2020), Abolition is Love (Triangle Square/Penguin Random House, 2023),  Marvellous Grounds: Queen of Colour Formations (BTL, 2018) and Queering Urban Justice (UTP, 2018).