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Pérez Art Museum Miami: Don't Miss the Opening of 'Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides'



Join us for a panel conversation in celebration of the opening of Calida Rawles’s first museum solo exhibition, Away with the Tides. Rawles's work engages with Miami’s water-entwined climate and dives into the history of beauty, oppression, and resilience in PAMM’s neighboring community of Overtown and the waterways of historic Virginia Key Beach.


The panel will open with the screening of a short documentary, “Wade in the Water,” by Cathleen Dean, setting the tone for a discussion around the visual exploration of Black people’s relationship to water and Rawles’s envisioning of water as a space for Black healing. Following the short film, artist Calida Rawles, filmmaker Cathleen Dean, and Overtown community leader and life-long resident Trina Harris, will engage in a lively conversation moderated by Chire “Vanta Black” Regans, a South Florida-based visual artist and community advocate.


Before the conversation, view the new exhibition in the galleries and celebrate on the terrace from 5–7pm with happy hour and live jazz to celebrate the rich musical roots of our neighbors in Overtown.


Scholl Lecture Series

Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides


Thursday, June 27

7pm


About Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides


Calida Rawles envisions water as a space for Black healing and reimagines the African American community beyond the stories we already know as a part of the United States’ collective history. Merging hyperrealism, poetic abstraction, and the cultural and historical symbolisms of water, Rawles creates unique portraits of Black bodies submerged in and interacting with bright and mysterious bodies of water. The water, itself a sort of character within the paintings, functions as an element that signifies both physical and spiritual healing, as well as historical trauma and racial exclusion. For her first museum solo presentation, Rawles creates a bridge between her signature style and a story within Miami’s history that is often ignored and obscured.


Rawles delves into the particular experience of Black people in Overtown, a Miami neighborhood that went from a thriving cultural and commercial hub for Black people to a subject of gentrification, systemic racism, and mass displacement. The figures in Rawles’s paintings are residents of the Overtown community—from young children to senior citizens. The exhibition’s focus is on the stories and experiences of those who live in this historic, once bustling neighborhood. Rawles takes her practice a step further by photographing some of her subjects in natural waters for the very first time, at the historic Virginia Key Beach, which was once racially segregated. By photographing Black subjects in the ocean for the first time, Rawles is able to probe the Atlantic’s history as the site of the supremely exploitative transatlantic slave trade. The finished work critically engages with Miami’s water-entwined climate and mines the history of beauty, oppression, and resilience in PAMM’s neighboring community of Overtown.



Organization and Support


Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides is organized by Maritza M. Lacayo, Associate Curator, with the support of Fabiana Sotillo, Curatorial Assistant. This exhibition is presented with lead individual support from Allison and Larry Berg and supporting sponsorship from Goldman Sachs. Additional support from PAMM’s International Women’s Committee and Rebkah and Desmond Howard is gratefully acknowledged.


The Scholl Lecture Series is made possible thanks to a generous gift from Dennis and Debra Scholl.


Image credit: Calida Rawles. Detail of Impact, 2024. Acrylic on canvas. 60 x 72 inches. Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London. Photo: Marten Elder


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 Cultural Affairs, 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.


For tickets click HERE.


By ML Staff. Courtesy of Pérez Art Museum Miami





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