Read the full article at Vice Creators

Smith imagines the people of color we’ve frequently seen on our phone screens as a loving, dysfunctional family.

He began posting the paintings in February for Black History Month to celebrate, as he says in an Instagram post, “something that has become an incredible part of black culture: MEMES.”

Smith got his start making art at an early age while attending Cab Calloway School of the Arts, in Wilmington. At Calloway, Smith discovered he had a talent for portraiture.

He says he embraced the fact that he often couldn’t get his subjects to look “just right,” choosing to jumble and stretch the noses, eyes, and mouths of his subjects onto claustrophobically-cropped faces.

With this surreal style, he celebrates the beauty and power of blackness—the beauty and power of black celebrities, black friends, black family, black acquaintances, and black memes.

Alim is a social media star too with almost 28,000 Instagram followers!