The visual art exhibits to see in Toronto right now

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. Until May 3 at Koffler Arts — Youngplace. 

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Blessed and High Favoured.” 

Collective Visions: Celebrating 25 Years of Photography

This new exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the museum’s photography department, offers a glimpse at the staggering breadth and quality of the AGO’s collection. The show is set up in a way that provokes reflection: the 94 works were each chosen by different individuals (including fellow artists, curators, arts scholars and collectors), who picked a photograph in response to the previous selection. The result is an exhibit in which each piece is connected in some way to one that follows — in mood, theme, subject or style. Follow along with the exhibition guide to read each participant’s explanation behind their selection. Or, like me, you can just peruse the gallery and try to find the connections between all the pieces. Until May 10 at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Glorious Catastrophe

There’s something quite discombobulating about standing in the middle of “Glorious Catastrophe,” Gillian Iles’ sprawling, if somewhat muddled, new show running at Koffler Arts. It’s a swirl of colours, lights and objects: a grandfather clock dangling from the ceiling, furniture tenuously balanced on nothing but teacups, various nature scenes that bleed into one another. This is what Alice must’ve felt like as she tumbled down that rabbit hole. But maybe that’s the point. Throughout the gallery, Iles appears to be concerned with the idea of bearing witness. Is it ever possible to be a neutral, passive observer? she asks. Her answer, echoing throughout the various multimedia works on display, is a resounding, forceful “no”: we’re moulded by what we see, she argues. And what we see is moulded by our presence as well. Until June 7 at Koffler Arts — Youngplace. 

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Glorious Catastrophe.” 

Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm

Ever since Paul McCartney’s meteoric ascent to superstardom some six decades ago with the Beatles, we’ve seen many different versions of the man. There’s McCartney the bassist with his signature mop-top hairdo. McCartney the songwriter and lyricist extraordinaire. McCartney the solo artist. McCartney the crusading activist. Now, add one more entry to that list: Paul McCartney the genius photographer. I write that with a dash of envy. What right does one man have to be so talented? I found myself asking that question as I explored McCartney’s “Eyes of the Storm,” his new exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, on tour from London’s National Portrait Gallery. It’s not only an astounding showcase of McCartney’s skill as a photographer but it also serves as an intimate dive into life behind the scenes at the height of Beatlemania. Until June 7 at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm.”

Edna Taçon: Verve and Decorum

The late Canadian artist Edna Taçon made me see sound. Not just noise, but complete musical phrases. In some of her abstract pieces, voluptuous ribbons stand in for luscious melodies. They twist and fold in on themselves, each turn revealing new shades of colour. Elsewhere, the melody is leaner, spindlier, represented by scraggly lines that dart across the canvas. All these threads collide on the page with other geometric forms — an accompaniment, if you will, of colours and shapes that, like music, evoke both harmony and dissonance. Until Aug. 30 at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Edna Taçon: Verve and Decorum.”

Shokkan: Material Encounters in Japanese Art

It’s a sign on display at every museum: an outstretched hand in the middle of a red circle with a diagonal slash running through it — the universal symbol warning us to “do not touch.” From a young age, we’re taught that museum objects are to be seen, not felt. Yet in “Shokkan: Material Encounters in Japanese Art,” a new major exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum, that thinking is almost entirely thrown out the door. Go ahead, do touch, this show seemingly beckons to us. It’s even in the exhibition’s name. In Japanese, the word “shokkan” means “the sense of touch.” More specifically, it refers to the psychological impression of touch. Until Sept. 7 at the Royal Ontario Museum. 

Read Joshua Chong’s full review of “Shokkan: Material Encounters in Japanese Art.”

No Limits

When Ranbir Sidhu was a child, his father put an architect’s drawing board in his bedroom. It was a gesture that would echo in the sculptures, jewelry and furniture Sidhu made decades later — work marked by an architectural instinct for structure. Sidhu’s first museum show, “No Limits,” brings together many of his thematic interests and his command of steel and marble. The centrepiece is “Asteroid 3033 X1,” a monumental crystalline sculpture that looks as if a meteor struck the ROM’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal and fused with it. In his hands, steel and marble become Janus-like. They look back to the traditions of his Sikh heritage while imagining a future shaped by space travel. Until Jan. 3, 2027 at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Read Brandon Kaufman’s full feature on “No Limits.”