Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is pleased to announce a forthcoming exhibition featuring all new works by painter Calida Rawles, opening June 2024. This is the artist’s first museum solo exhibition, and will reflect aspects of Miami’s diverse communities, natural environments, and rich history.
Rawles’ paintings blend hyperrealism with poetic abstraction, situating her subjects in dynamic spaces. Her recent work utilizes water as a vital, organic, and multifaceted element—as well as a historically charged space which concomitantly represents individual healing and racial exclusion.
“I am so inspired by the Overtown community’s resilience and strength. Through my work, I hope to shine new light on the beauty and untold stories of its residents. I’m immensely grateful to Franklin Sirmans and Maritza Lacayo for supporting my vision and giving me the opportunity to engage so meaningfully with this incredible community,” said Calida Rawles.
For the exhibition, Rawles bridges the past and the present. 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 to a town subjected to gentrification, systemic racism, and mass displacement. The new paintings seek to illuminate and celebrate the history, resilience, and beauty of the historically Black Miami neighborhood, giving shape to an American experience that is often overlooked.
“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,” said PAMM Assistant Curator Maritza Lacayo.
Rawles’ process begins with a series of preliminary photoshoots in Virginia Key Beach and a public pool in Overtown, which form the subject matter for the lifelike paintings. By photographing Black subjects in an ocean for the first time, 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.
Calida Rawles’ forthcoming exhibition at PAMM comes on the heels of A Certain Oblivion, a solo exhibition of new paintings at Lehmann Maupin New York which opens November 9, 2023.