R. Armstrong is a trans-disciplinary artist and writer exploring embodiment, decay, and wonder through language, sound, images, objects, and installation. Armstrong earned a BA with Honors in Sculpture from Yale, as well as an MFA in Poetry and an MA in English Literature from Bennington and Middlebury respectively. The artist has been awarded residencies at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Akademie Schloss Solitude, which supported the creation of Wakes and Waking Sings, and was a WritingLive Fellow at Performa09. Work has been shown in the UK, Germany, Belgium, and the States, including the solo shows if you have a body when you get here at The Ocean/The Waves Gallery in New York and But Once We Dreamed and Du/e Corps/e nella Groundless Ground in Pennsylvania. Phrasebook for the Unrequited Country, a poetry manuscript, was shortlisted for the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets and the Hawley Award from Alice James Books.

YardWork brought contemporary art and artists to the small community in the coal regions of northern Appalachia where the artist grew up. The project of linking the artist’s birthplace and current global community continues with Spinster Sister, a resource-share and gallery that opened in 2019 in central Pennsylvania, where the artist is currently based. 

full CV coming soon!