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Calida Rawles

CALIDA RAWLES

Calida Rawles: Parallax Lehmann Maupin 15 October–14 November 2026 501 West 24th Street, New York
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Press Release

In her latest exhibition of new paintings, Calida Rawles explores parallax: how changing our point of view can change the way we see the same moment. Known for merging hyperrealism with poetic abstraction, Rawles situates Black subjects within dynamic, fluid environments, using water as both a vital material and a historically charged space through which questions of identity, memory, healing, and belonging come into focus.

This new exhibition centers on a series of three paintings based on photographs Rawles took of her youngest daughter in a pool. Captured within seconds of one another as Rawles moved around her in the water, the photographs record essentially the same moment from shifting positions and perspectives—each yielding an entirely different composition and visual experience. As she notes, “I became interested in this subtle shift: how proximity, distance, angle, and movement can transform what we see without changing the moment itself.” Through abstraction, water, light, and the movement around the figure, the resulting works create spaces that feel at once intimate and expansive.

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Installation Views

Exhibition view: Calida Rawles, Calida Rawles: Parallax, Lehmann Maupin (15 October–14 November 2026). Courtesy Lehmann Maupin.
Exhibition view: Calida Rawles, Calida Rawles: Parallax, Lehmann Maupin (15 October–14 November 2026). Courtesy Lehmann Maupin.
Exhibition view: Calida Rawles, Calida Rawles: Parallax, Lehmann Maupin (15 October–14 November 2026). Courtesy Lehmann Maupin.
Exhibition view: Calida Rawles, Calida Rawles: Parallax, Lehmann Maupin (15 October–14 November 2026). Courtesy Lehmann Maupin.
Exhibition view: Calida Rawles, Calida Rawles: Parallax, Lehmann Maupin (15 October–14 November 2026). Courtesy Lehmann Maupin.
About the Artist

The paintings of Calida Rawles (b. 1976, Wilmington, DE; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) merge hyper-realism with poetic abstraction. Situating her subjects in dynamic spaces, her recent work employs water as a vital, organic, multifaceted material, and historically charged space. Ranging from buoyant and ebullient to submerged and mysterious, Black bodies float in exquisitely rendered submarine landscapes of bubbles, ripples, refracted light and expanses of blue. 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 racialised tropes. Enhancing the seductive nature of water, the work tempers heavier subjects with aquatic serenity and geographic and temporal ambiguities, inviting multiple readings. Embedded in her titles and topographical notations in the compositions, Rawles’ canvases represent an expansive vision of strength and tranquility during today’s turbulent times, while insisting on the triumph of humanity.

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Also Exhibiting at Lehmann Maupin

All Exhibitions
Rana Begum Lehmann Maupin 10 September–24 October 2026 501 West 24th Street, New York
Teresa Solar Abboud
TERESA SOLAR ABBOUD Atlantic Ridge Multiplicity Lehmann Maupin 10 September–31 October 2026 London
Leonora Carrington, Cecilia Vicuña
LEONORA CARRINGTON, CECILIA VICUÑA Cecilia Vicuña, Leonora Carrington Lehmann Maupin 19 November–19 December 2026 501 West 24th Street, New York
About the Gallery

Rachel Lehmann and David Maupin founded Lehmann Maupin in 1996. The gallery represents a diverse range of American artists, as well as artists and estates from across Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, and the Middle East. It has been instrumental in introducing numerous artists from around the world in their first New York exhibitions.

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Address
501 West 24th Street
New York
United States
Opening Hours
Summer Hours:
Monday – Friday
10am – 6pm
(1)
New York 501 West 24th Street
Lehmann Maupin contemporary art gallery in 501 West 24th Street New York United States
Lehmann Maupin
501 West 24th Street, New York, United States
+1 212 255 2923
http://www.lehmannmaupin.com

Opening hours
Summer Hours:
Monday – Friday
10am – 6pm
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