Calida Rawles (b. 1976, Wilmington DE; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) is a hyper-realist, figurative painter whose work explores identity, race, and social politics. Rawles is best known for her ethereal paintings of Black bodies floating in a submarine landscape of bubbles, ripples , and refracted light. For Rawles, water signifies both physical and spiritual healing as well as historical trauma and racial exclusion. She uses this complicated duality as a means to envision a new space for Black healing, and to reimagine her subjects beyond racialized tropes. Embedded in her titles and topographical notations in her compositions, Rawles’s canvases represent an expansive vision of strength and tranquility during today’s turbulent times.
Rawles received a B.A. in painting from Spelman College in 1998 and an M.A. in painting from New York University in 2000. Rawles first entered the public eye in 2019, when one of her paintings graced the cover of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ novel, The Water Dancer. In 2020, her debut solo exhibition, “A Dream For My Lilith,” opened to critical acclaim at Various Small Fires in Los Angeles. Following “Lilith”, Rawles made her New York City debut at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, where she exhibited “On The Other Side of Everything” in 2021. In 2022, Rawles’ work was showcased at the 12th Berlin Biennale, in Berlin, Germany. In 2023 Calida presented an exhibition of new paintings, A Certain Oblivion, at Lehmann Maupin. This is her first major solo exhibition in New York, following an In Focus exhibition with the gallery in 2021.
Rawles’ work can be found in public and private collections around the world, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (2020), Perez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL (2021), The Studio Museum of Harlem (2021), and Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (2021), SF Moma (2022).
Most recently, Rawles completed her first large-scale public art installation, The Way of Time (2022), now on display at the Sofi Stadium promenade in Inglewood, CA.