{"id":437581,"date":"2025-09-20T03:10:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T03:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/437581\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T03:10:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T03:10:16","slug":"in-ethereal-paintings-calida-rawles-plunges-into-the-dark-depths-of-water-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/437581\/","title":{"rendered":"In Ethereal Paintings, Calida Rawles Plunges into the Dark Depths of Water \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

In This Time Before Tomorrow, Calida Rawles diverges from the familiar faces<\/a>\u2014those of her daughters and chosen companions\u2014that characterized her most recent body of work. Instead, the artist returns to rippling abstractions and bubbling textures, obscuring identifiable features with painterly gestures. <\/p>\n

Water, for Rawles, is never neutral. In the lineage of scholars like Christina Sharpe and Saidiya Hartman, the artist considers water to be a charged site and vessel for memory. Along with references to texts by Audre Lorde, Octavia Butler, and Albert Camus, among others, she presents this philosophical grounding as a way to consider the inevitability of change and how transformation can inspire hope. \u201cWhat is the artist\u2019s role in moments of crisis?\u201d she asks.<\/p>\n

\"a\u201cRefraction\u201d (2025), acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 inches<\/p>\n

Mixing her hyperrealistic style with surreal distortions, Rawles always begins with a photo session before turning to the canvas. In this stage, she conjures moments of ambiguity. Glimmering undulations and bubbles cloud the figures\u2019 bodies, while the reflective surface creates the illusion of a double and two forms bleeding into one another. Whether barely breaching the water\u2019s surface or plunging into a pool, the figures appear suspended in a brief moment, their liquid surroundings embracing their relaxed limbs. <\/p>\n

Rawles gravitates toward chiaroscuro in these paintings, rendering deep, murky waters in bold acrylic. This dark color palette is also a metaphor for the current moment. She says: <\/p>\n

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Personally, I\u2019m grappling with the fractures within the American mythos\u2014once rooted in the promises of democracy, inclusion, and justice. Today, that dream feels increasingly elusive. The melting pot that was once a symbol of unity now cracks under the weight of deportations; truth has become subjective; and justice feels subverted. Amidst this cultural disorientation, I find myself untethered\u2014aware of tectonic shifts beneath both my personal and collective foundations.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This Time Before Tomorrow is on view through September 27 at Lehmann Maupin<\/a> London.<\/p>\n

\"a\u201cA Balance of Dawn\u201d (2025), acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 x 2 inches <\/p>\n

\"a\u201cWhen Time Carries\u201d (2025), acrylic on canvas, 72 x 96 inches<\/p>\n

\"a\u201cThrough Fury and Beyond Reason\u201d (2025), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 48 x 2 inches<\/p>\n

\"a\u201cMusing\u201d (2025), acrylic on canvas, 48 x 60 x 2 inches<\/p>\n

\"fiveInstallation view of \u2018This Time Before Tomorrow.\u2019 Photo by Lucy Dawkins<\/p>\n

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