This impressive art exhibit celebrates Black excellence — with Drake, Vladdy and more surprising portraits

When you take in Kalmplex’s paintings in his impressive new exhibit at Koffler Arts, regally titled “Blessed and Highly Favoured,” you may be inclined to simply label his work as caricature. Indeed, the Toronto artist’s portraits certainly resemble that style. His pieces often depict larger-than-life subjects with exaggerated facial features, like bulging, bright eyes or toothy grins, stretching so wide it may seem their cheeks are about to split apart.

But I’m hesitant to describe these portraits as caricature because the term often carries a negative connotation. When you think of caricature, you think of garish political cartoons, pieces that mock their subjects or, perhaps, some of those kitschy, hastily drawn artworks that tourists love to sit for in New York’s Times Square.

Kalmplex’s art can’t be reduced to that. While traditional caricatures usually punch down, these portraits elevate their sitters. While caricatures can be superficial, merely highlighting the worst physical traits of an individual, Kalmplex’s portraits accentuate the best of each individual, with an external radiance reflecting what’s inherent on the inside.

“Blessed and Highly Favoured,” made up of more than 50 artworks, is a celebration of Black excellence, especially Black excellence in Toronto. His subjects come from all walks of life: his friends, family, ancestors, along with global icons like Beyoncé and Rihanna, and local royalty like Drake and Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

A self-taught multimedia artist, Kalmplex often flouts convention. Many of his works are bold and brash, popping with solid colours and backgrounds of turquoise, lemon yellow and brat-summer green. Others more closely resemble cartoons, with speech bubbles filling the canvas.

But all these pieces are united by their shared embodiment of Black joy. It’s reflected in how Kalmplex depicts his subjects: with confidence, poise, sometimes even a dash of whimsy.

There’s much joy for Kalmplex’s audiences, too — joy in recognizing familiar faces depicted in this collection. (Is that Kobe Bryant over there? And is that Bad Bunny in another corner, staring at me while waving a Puerto Rican flag?)

Among the most striking portraits is one featuring Amanda Parris, the Canadian arts writer, broadcaster and cultural advocate. Depicted against a forest green background, she’s wearing earrings with a map of Africa and a glistening, aquamarine top. With her hand placed below her chin, she looks at the viewer over her left shoulder. She looks regal.

But really, so too do the other individuals depicted in this exhibition. I think that’s the point. And Kalmplex’s portraits are of people he admires, of those he considers to be “African Royalty.” Looking at his dazzling new show through this lens, it’s impossible not to feel like you’re in the presence of kings and queens.