Warren “Wayne” Hanson is a Jamaican artist and musician born in 1956, he has lived in Toronto since 1976. His work focuses on the African Diaspora and racial, social, humanitarian and climate justice and inner peace.
Wayne learned music on goat skin drums and sticks given to him by elders during Nyahbinghi circles, alongside singing of praise a local church. He immigrated to Canada in 1976, and quickly joined up with the Malton crew, alongside Raffa Dean (drummer), Garry Lowe (bass), elder JoJo Bennett (trumpet), and Adrian Miller (vocals). He studied music composition, voice, and bass guitar at JoJo’s music school in downtown Toronto. In the 1980s Wayne joined the Freedom Fighters, a self-described rebel band, who won three Canadian Reggae Music Award nominations for their debut cassette Rasta Soldiers. They opened for many prominent international artists such as Linton Kwesi Johnson, Sistah Breeze, Dennis Brown, and Culture. Wayne lent his talents to Imagine Rainbow Warriors, supporting their fight for humanitarian causes, and the Revelation Band, with whom he opened for One, Messenjah, and The Wailers. They appeared on Breakfast Television in 1991 and at the Caribana parade in front of one million participants. After his solo debut in 1994, Wayne Hanson was the first unsigned independent reggae artist to ever tour Canada. Wayne continues to create music both digitally and live with friends G-Star and Jahson, recording as 3-Peace and 4-Peace.
Wayne grew up in Hopewell, where his work “Marketplace” won an Island-wide competition for Best High School Painting in 1974 representing North West Academy. The painting “Mama’s Pickney” appeared in 2009’s Beyond the Rhythm show at the Royal Ontario Museum, curated by Joan Butterfield. And later at the Empire Gallery in Yorkville, Toronto, for Nuit Blanche with the Association of African Canadian Artists. In 2009 Hanson was invited to the Beyond the Rhythm touring show, and his work appeared at Oakville Town Hall, Mississauga Heritage Centre, the Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Development Research Centre in Ottawa. Also in 2009, Curator Bonita Johnson de Matteias chose an earlier version of Mamas Pickney for Relatively Speaking for the Grey Roots Museum and Archives, Owen Sound, Ontario Emancipation Arts Festival. In 2010 Wayne Hanson had creations appear in From the Soul curated by Joan Butterfield for the Royal Ontario Museum. George Elliott Clarke, Canada’s National Poet Laureate selected his work “Guardian Angel” to be the cover of his book Directions Home, University of Toronto Press, 2012. In 2024, Wayne Hanson was a featured artist at the Nia Centre’s Black Art Fair.