Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides

Calida Rawles: Away with the Tides presents a compelling solo exhibition by Calida Rawles, an artist whose work blends hyperrealism with poetic abstraction to investigate the cultural, historical, and emotional significance of water. In this presentation at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, water serves not only as a physical setting but also as a symbolic element that carries histories of displacement, racial exclusion, communal resilience, and personal healing. Drawing from narratives linked to the African American experience, the artist portrays figures—often based on real individuals—submerged in or interacting with varying bodies of water that evoke both peril and possibility. Rawles’s paintings bring to the surface layered stories that move between the personal and the collective. Her compositions capture moments of stillness and flux, using light, gesture, and surface to convey emotional depth. The exhibition bridges the artist’s signature modes—where realism meets abstraction—and invites audiences to consider water as both witness and participant in histories of community, memory, and transformation. Organized by the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Away with the Tides highlights Rawles’s ongoing engagement with Black identity, landscape, and the unseen or obscured narratives intrinsic to American life. The exhibition runs through March 1, 2026, at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, 829 Riverside Avenue, Jacksonville, FL.