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Ojo Agi, A Couple Minutes, 2025
When Angels Speak Of Love
After the success of “Too Much Fashion,” Armova Curatorial returns on June 12th with
“WHEN ANGELS SPEAK OF LOVE,” an Exhibition Inspired by cultural critic bell hooks’
“All About Love”
Armova Curatorial is proud to present “When Angels Speak of Love,” a group exhibition that responds to the radical vision of love articulated by the late bell hooks in her seminal work, All About Love: New Visions (2000). The exhibition will be on view from June 12, 2026, through June 28, 2026, with an opening reception on June 11, 2026, at 2104 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON, from 6 pm - 9 pm. Throughout the exhibition, the public will be invited to participate in programming related to the exhibition theme through dedicated tours and an exciting activation in partnership with MakeRoom Inc.
Drawing its title from the last chapter of hooks’s poetic call to reimagine love as a dynamic, transformative practice that is a “combination of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust,” When Angels Speak of Love gathers contemporary artists who explore love not as passive romance but as a political, spiritual, and community-building force. The exhibition repositions love as an action, a discipline, and a necessary foundation for justice and healing in a world sorely in need of truly transformative love.
Curated by Byron Armstrong and Ilene Sova of Armova Curatorial, the exhibition features works in painting, photography, sculpture, and textiles that interpret themes of self-love, grief, reparative care, domesticity, friendship, and collective liberation. Each artist responds to hooks’s insistence that love is essential to ending systems of domination — whether racism, sexism, classism, or loneliness.
Opening/Vernissage: Thursday, June 11th, 2026 - 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Exhibition Dates: Friday June 12th, 2026 - Sunday June 28th, 2026
Location: 2104 Dundas Street West, Toronto, ON
Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Friday (10 am to 5 pm) | Saturday - Sunday (12 pm to 4 pm)
Featured Artists:
Anthony Gebrehiwot (Tony Tones)
Programming Partner: MakeRoom Inc.
*All programs are free and open to the public.
Funding: With special thanks to the Toronto Arts Council
About Armova Curatorial:
Armova Curatorial is a collaborative curatorial practice led by Byron Armstrong and Ilene Sova. Our work centers artists whose voices and histories have been marginalized, with a focus on diaspora, cultural memory, and contemporary creative life. We approach curating as a form of storytelling; one that values community knowledge, lived experience, and shared authorship over academic gatekeeping or extractive models.
Our exhibitions are designed as spaces of encounter: places where artists, audiences, and cultural workers come together through dialogue, learning, and creative exchange. We work across galleries, festivals, and public institutions, often transforming traditional exhibition spaces into sites for conversation, workshops, and collective reflection.
About bell hooks: bell hooks (1952–2021) was a groundbreaking author, feminist theorist, cultural critic, and educator whose work centred on the intersectionality of race, gender, class, and love. All About Love: New Visions remains one of her most widely read and transformative texts.
Press Contact (Images/interviews):
Byron Armstrong
For exhibition updates, follow @armovacuratorial and hashtag #WhenAngelsSpeakOfLove.
