Artist Biography

Calida Garcia Rawles (born 1976 in Wilmington, Delaware) is a Los Angeles–based painter whose large-scale canvases fuse hyperrealism with poetic abstraction to explore themes of race, identity, history, and recovery through the medium of water. She earned her B.A. in Painting from Spelman College (1998) and an M.A. from New York University (2000). Early work as a graphic designer and illustrator eventually gave way to her signature practice: depicting Black subjects—women, children, men—suspended in luminous waterscapes that evoke both trauma and transcendence. Rawles first gained broad recognition when her painting graced the 2019 cover of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s novel The Water Dancer, and she has since held acclaimed solo exhibitions at Various Small Fires (2020), Lehmann Maupin in New York (2021, 2023), and the Pérez Art Museum Miami—her first solo museum show—(2024–25). Her works are now in major collections, including LACMA, PAMM, SFMOMA, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Dallas Museum of Art, and more.

Statement

Artist Statement

My practice is rooted in the beauty, complexity, and resilience of the Black body—particularly the Black woman’s body—as it exists in both physical and symbolic spaces. Water is my central motif. It is simultaneously a site of danger, healing, memory, and rebirth. Through hyperrealist paintings of submerged figures, I explore the layered experience of navigating Black identity in America.

Using the medium of watercolor and acrylic with meticulous detail, I render my subjects immersed in water—buoyant, drifting, reaching, resisting. The fluidity of water allows me to express both vulnerability and strength. It becomes a mirror, a barrier, and a sanctuary. It reflects cultural trauma and personal liberation.

I seek to disrupt traditional representations of Black people by placing them in dreamlike, transcendent environments. In doing so, I reclaim visual narratives—offering an image of Blackness that is expansive, surreal, and deeply human. My work is an invitation to pause, reflect, and feel.

EXPLORE

Group Exhibition.

West Hollywood, CA.

Jennia - Works Available

Works Available

Jennia - Press

Press

IN THE PAINT — Artist Spotlight
Jennia Fredrique Aponte

Jennia Fredrique Aponte, an artist from Gary, Indiana, pays homage to Black dancers and forgotten icons through intricate paper mosaics. Using rare, recycled, and handmade paper collected from her travels, Jennia crafts each piece to honor ancestors and envisions a future of inclusivity and joy.

Sol Aponte And Jennia Fredrique Seek To Amplify Voices In Black Art

Led by the husband-and-wife duo, Art Melanated is making a way for creatives of color—one exhibition at a time.

Meet the Husband and Wife Duo Shaking Up the Art World

Sol and Jennia Aponte are diversifying the overwhelmingly white art world by hosting traveling exhibitions of work by Black artists, thereby creating a new paradigm.

Jennia - Events

Events

International Debut

Meet us in Paris. We’re excited to announce that Art Melanated is making its international debut at the 10th anniversary of AKAA (Also Known As Africa) @akaa_fair Art Fair this October in Paris. As the only U.S. gallery selected to exhibit, we’re bringing the brilliance of our community to the global stage—and spotlighting a very special artist. Jennia Fredrique Aponte @jenniafredrique will present her first solo international exhibition, debuting her breathtaking new series: Clockwork Academy: School for Girls. Set in an alternate 1888, this visionary body of work reimagines Black girlhood at the height of the Industrial Revolution—where invention becomes identity, and sisterhood becomes power. 📍 AKAA Art Fair – Carreau du Temple, Paris 🗓 October 24–26, 2025