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.