Blessed and Highly Favoured | Kalmplex

Curated by David Liss

For over 20 years, Kalmplex has been a ubiquitous fixture at art exhibitions, music shows, festivals, and cultural events across Toronto, documenting the scene with his camera, performing as a DJ, painting live, and exhibiting in galleries and alternative venues.

Organized by Koffler Arts and curated by David Liss, Blessed and Highly Favoured focuses on Kalmplex’s painting practice. The exhibition includes a residency where the artist will work on site throughout the show at the recently opened Koffler301 gallery.

Born and raised in Toronto, Kalmplex has drawn and painted since early childhood, and enrolled in university fine arts programs during the late 1990s and early 2000s, majoring in drawing and painting. Realizing that the constrictions of academia did not suit his life path, he abandoned formal education and considers himself self-taught. Liberated from institutional aesthetic codes, he has developed an authentic and distinct pictorial vocabulary over the years.

Primarily working at modest scale, Kalmplex creates portraits mostly of people he considers to be African Royalty: family members reflecting his Jamaican and Ghanaian heritage; friends and colleagues; self-portraits, and well-known figures and celebrities he admires. Beginning with photographic sources, or sometimes from memory, he renders his figures by unconventionally starting with their eyes, emphasizing the essence or internal spirit of each subject. Larger works depicting gatherings in parks, on streets, or in group settings are often composed from multiple sources, resulting in fictionalized narratives. The pictures occasionally include inspirational texts, phrases or quotes.

Kalmplex’s characteristic style includes the use of metallic paints and carefully chosen colours that evoke royal ornamentation. This approach elevates each sitter—regardless of social or economic standing, whether friend or celebrity—to a shared regal status, and alludes to transformation and connection to a lineage of Ancient Beings reincarnated in this lifetime.

Working autonomously, outside formal art world networks, Kalmplex’s practice is intended to inspire community and connection, fostering an uplifting ambience and energy of positivity. The exhibition title is the artist’s signature greeting, an affirmation of his and our collective, blessed existence; an acknowledgment of what it means to be fully alive and present in the moment.

Blessed and Highly Favoured is specifically presented in Koffler 301, the newly opened gallery that focuses on artists from the Toronto community. One of the city’s most prominent cultural figures, Kalmplex celebrates community and joyousness through creative action and iconic presence.

Learn more about related programs for this exhibition here.

For media inquiries please contact: Laura Chapnick-Klein lchapnick@kofflerarts.org