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New YorkArtist
Byron
Linnell
Edwards
FUN

Oil, pastel, and fiber. Race, identity, and Black masculinity through abstraction and figuration. Work rooted in memory, resistance, and the fullness of Black life.

FUNOil Pastel on Canvas
About the Artist

The Work
& The Why

The childlike visual language is not naive, it is the argument. I came to painting through burnout, after fifteen years in entertainment public relations. I returned to the visual vocabulary of childhood deliberately: because that is where Black boys are first taught what they are allowed to be, and what they are not.

Working in oil, pastel, and fiber, I make paintings that hold what institutional memory erases.

, Artist Statement
Biography

Byron Linnell Edwards is a self-taught abstract and figurative artist based in New York. His practice sits at the intersection of personal history and collective memory, using oil, pastel, and fiber to interrogate how Black life is represented, commodified, and erased.

His work has been commissioned by Visa, collected by BET Networks, and licensed by Showtime. He is the founder of Wellness for Creatives, with institutional partners including the Getty Museum, SoHo House, and Chrysler Museum of Art.

2021First Solo Show
NYCCurrently Based
ShowtimeLicensed Artwork
VisaCorporate Commission
Portfolio

Selected Works

SeriesThe Minstrel Show

Nine paintings examining the visual economy of anti-Black caricature, from 19th-century minstrelsy to contemporary media representation. The series refuses the progress narrative, insisting instead that the image of Black life in America has been continuously managed, distorted, and commodified. Solo exhibition, Los Angeles, 2021.

Little Black Sambo
Strange Fruit
American Beauty
Little Black Sambo2021 · Oil Pastel on Canvas · 48×36 in.
WorkFor Ahmaud

A single work in response to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, operating simultaneously as memorial, indictment, and refusal. Torn newsprint embedded in acrylic surface holds the record of a murder that the state first tried to disappear.

For Ahmaud
For Ahmaud2020 · Mixed Media: Acrylic & Paper on Canvas · 30×24 in.
SeriesThe Blues

Three oil pastel portraits naming what the culture refuses to, Depression, In Dire Distress, Despair. Made in response to an 80% documented rise in Black male suicide, the series rejects the demand that Black men perform strength at the expense of survival.

Depressed
In Dire Distress #44
Despair
Depressed2021 · Oil Pastel · 20×16 in.
In Dire Distress #442021 · Oil Pastel · 20×16 in.
Despair2021 · Oil Pastel · 20×16 in.
WorksWorks on Paper

An ongoing body of intimate works in oil and pastel on paper. Studies in solitude, interiority, and abstracted form, the private register of a practice that is otherwise public and confrontational. 2022–2025.

Composition A
Composition B
Alone
Lonely
Helping Hand
Eye of the Storm
WorksCanvas & Wood

Large-scale paintings on canvas and wood panel. Works held in private and corporate collections across the United States.

Ubique
Protego
Ubique2023 · Oil & Pastel on Wood · 48×36 in.
Protego2023 · Oil & Pastel on Wood · 48×36 in.
Curriculum Vitae

Background

Exhibitions
2021
The Minstrel ShowSolo Exhibition · The Pop Up Shop, Los Angeles, CA
2024
Black History Month, Featured ArtistSip and Wonder, Los Angeles, CA
2024
The Artist Tree, Artist on ViewLos Angeles, CA
2023
In My MindABWB, Los Angeles, CA
2022
Joy All DayBET Networks · Orpheum Theater, New Orleans, LA
Public Art
2025
Ignite InkChrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
Collections & Commissions
2023
VisaCorporate Commission
2022
ViacomCBS / BET NetworksCorporate Collection
2022
Showtime, Your HonorLicensed Artwork · Time Warner
2023
THIRTY, Featured ArtworkEssence Film Fest · Micheaux Film Fest · Indie Short Fest
Education & Publications
2008
BA, CommunicationGeorge Mason University, Fairfax, VA
,
In My MindAdult Coloring Book · Amazon & Barnes & Noble
,
Wellness for CreativesFounder · Getty · SoHo House · Chrysler Museum
Byron Linnell Edwards
Byron Linnell Edwards
Get in Touch

Let's Work.

Commissions, exhibitions, acquisitions, graduate inquiries, licensing, and Wellness programming.

Art that holds
what words can't.