Calida Rawles : Away with the Tides
Away with the Tides, 2024 Acrylic on canvas 96 x 120 inches Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London
(MIAMI, FL — ) — Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is pleased to present Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides, an exhibition featuring all-new, site-specific works alongside a novel large-scale video installation. Marking Rawles’s first solo museum exhibition in the United States, Away with the Tides reflects aspects of Miami’s diverse communities, natural environments, and rich history.
Internationally recognized for her intricate and delicate acrylic on canvas paintings, Rawles blends hyperrealism with poetic abstraction and situates her subjects in dynamic, undulating spaces. Her recent work utilizes water as a vital, organic, and multifaceted element—as well as a historically charged space that concomitantly represents racial exclusion and individual healing.
“Away with the Tides seeks to illuminate and celebrate Miami’s history, resilience, and beauty, in the hands of a distinct talent in contemporary painting. Supporting and collaborating with the local communities of Miami and South Florida is one of PAMM’s core values and central facets of its mission. I want to thank Calida for sharing her work, passion, and restless desire to experiment and evolve with PAMM and with our audiences.”
Away with the Tides bridges the past and present, depicting elements of Miami’s history through the eyes of its residents. Delving into the experience of Black people in America, Rawles partnered with members of the historically Black community of Overtown in Miami. Akin to Tremé in New Orleans, the Historic West End in Charlotte, and countless other neighborhoods in the United States, Overtown transformed from a thriving cultural and commercial hub for Black people in the 1930s to a town subjected to gentrification, systemic racism, and mass displacement beginning in the 1950s and 60s.
To See What It Is, 2024 Acrylic on canvas 84 x 48 inches Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London
“It is extremely exciting to work with Rawles on her first museum solo presentation. While Rawles’s signature style will be present, she is also pushing her boundaries and working in natural waters for the first time, resulting in paintings with a new color composition and feel. Miami is a complicated and difficult place to understand. I hope this exhibition gives others the courage to dive into their city or town’s history, no matter how dark or difficult.”
Release What I Will Not Give, 2024 Acrylic on canvas 30 x 24 inches Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London
Rawles’s process began with a series of preliminary photoshoots in Virginia Key Beach and the public pool at Theodore Gibson Park in Overtown, which then informed the subject matter for the lifelike paintings on view. Ranging from a 10-month-old baby to senior citizens, the portraits provide representation for those who call Overtown home while capturing the generational shift the community has undergone and giving shape to an American experience that is often overlooked. With residents as the subjects of her paintings, it became evident that the exhibition would be a transformative experience—for some, it would also be their first time at a museum, emphasizing the silos Miami still struggles to navigate despite geographical proximity.
Impact, 2024 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 72 inches Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London
Furthermore, by photographing Black individuals in the ocean, Rawles interrogates the Atlantic Ocean's history as the site of the supremely exploitative Transatlantic Slave Trade. As a result, the finished work critically engages with Miami’s water-entwined climate, while connecting to larger histories of beauty, oppression, and persistence in contemporary American life.
“I am so inspired by the Overtown community’s resilience and strength. Through my work, I hope to shine a new light on the beauty and untold stories of its residents. I’m immensely grateful to Franklin Sirmans and Maritza M. Lacayo for supporting my vision and giving me the opportunity to engage so meaningfully with this incredible community.”
Away with the Tides is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue, the most in-depth volume to date on Calida Rawles’s art and practice, featuring collaborators Regina R. Robertson, Christine Y. Kim, and Enuma Okoro.
Installation view: Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides, Pérez Art Museum Miami, 2024–25. Photo: Oriol Tarridas
Away with the Tides is organized by Maritza M. Lacayo, Associate Curator, with the support of Fabiana Sotillo, Curatorial Assistant.
ABOUT CALIDA RAWLES
Rawles received a B.A. from Spelman College, Atlanta, GA (1998) and an M.A. from New York University, New York, NY (2000). Solo exhibitions of her work have been organized at Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY (2021); Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA (2020); and Standard Vision, Los Angeles, CA (2020). Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions including Generation*. Jugend trotz(t) Krise, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany (2023); Rose in the Concrete, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (2023); 12th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (2022); Black American Portraits, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA (2021), Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA (2023); A Shared Body, FSU Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL (2021); View From Here, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA (2020); Art Finds a Way, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL (2020); Visions in Light, Windows on the Wallis, Beverly Hills, CA (2020); Presence, Fullerton College Art Gallery, Fullerton, CA (2019); With Liberty and Justice for Some, Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2017); Sanctuary City: With Liberty and Justice for Some, San Francisco Arts Commission, San Francisco, CA (2017); LACMA Inglewood + Film Lab, Inglewood, CA (2014); and Living off Experience, Rush Arts Gallery, New York, NY (2002). Rawles created the cover art for Ta-Nehisi Coates’s debut novel, “The Water Dancer,” and her work is in numerous public and private collections, including Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA; Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA; and Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY.
ABOUT PAMM
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), led by Director Franklin Sirmans, promotes artistic expression and the exchange of ideas, advancing public knowledge and appreciation of art, architecture, and design, and reflecting the diverse community of its pivotal geographic location at the crossroads of the Americas. The 40-year-old South Florida institution, formerly known as Miami Art Museum (MAM), opened a new building, designed by world-renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron, on December 4, 2013, in Downtown Miami’s Maurice A. Ferré Park. The facility is a state-of-the-art model for sustainable museum design and progressive programming and features 200,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor program space with flexible galleries; shaded outdoor verandas; a waterfront restaurant and bar; a museum shop; and an education center with a library, media lab, and classroom spaces.
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Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture. Support is provided by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners. Additional support is provided by the City of Miami and the Miami OMNI Community Redevelopment Agency (OMNI CRA). Pérez Art Museum Miami is an accessible facility. All contents ©Pérez Art Museum Miami. All rights reserved
Away with the Tides opened on June 27, 2024, and will be on view until February 2, 2025. For more information about this exhibit and other exhibits currently on view and upcoming, please visit the Pérez Art Museum website here. PAMM can also be found on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook.
