Vanessa Raw: This is How the Light Gets In
2024 Artist-in-Residence

Opening December 2, 2024

Born in 1984 in Hexham, England, Raw lives and works in Margate, England, and her presentation at the Rubell Museum Miami marks her first exhibition in the United States as well as her first institutional show. In these newly commissioned, large-scale works, Raw’s distinctive layered brushwork and expressive use of color depict a dream-like, all-female world—an earthly paradise where the natural world is benevolent and sentient, and where female desire is central. A former triathlete, Raw’s practiced mastery of her own body transfers to her work on canvas. Her figures are tranquil and at ease but have agency. They revel in the company of each other and in the landscape that is lush and soft and ripe with color—paradise found.

If Only I Could Let You Go, 2024
oil on linen
overall 77 x 145.5 in. (195 x 370 cm)
acquired in 2024

If Tomorrow Was Judgement Day, 2024
oil on linen
78.5 x 102.5 in. (200 x 260 cm)
acquired in 2024

Storm in the Morning Light, 2024
oil on linen
overall 94.5 x 141.5 in. (240 x 360 cm)
acquired in 2024

When I talk to the night, 2024
oil on linen
94.5 x 78.5 in. (240 x 200 cm)
acquired in 2024

On Earth we weren't meant to stay, 2023
oil on linen
overall 94.5 x 236 in. (240 x 600 cm)
acquired in 2024

You Made Me Watch, 2023
oil on linen
overall 111 x 74 3/4 in. (300 x 190 cm) 
acquired in 2023

Untitled, 2024
oil on linen
overall 118.11 x 291.34 in. (300 x 740 cm.)
acquired in 2024

ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY