Candela Books + Gallery presents
Claire A. Warden: Mimesis, an exhibition that uses abstraction as a lens through which questions of identity, perception, and representation are quietly but insistently examined. Installed in the gallery’s back space, Warden’s large-scale monochromatic works resist immediate recognition, asking viewers to linger in uncertainty and reconsider the impulse to define what is seen. Rather than offering clarity, the images open a contemplative space where looking becomes an active, reflective act tied to lived experience.
Working with alternative photographic processes, Warden physically intervenes in the creation of her images, manipulating silver halides directly on the negative. This deliberate disruption of the photographic surface becomes a metaphor for the layered forces—cultural, biological, historical—that shape identity. The resulting abstractions evoke visual languages borrowed from scientific imagery: cellular structures, topographic formations, and celestial fields. These references suggest systems of classification and observation, while simultaneously revealing their limitations when applied to something as fluid and complex as the self.
Mimesis positions photography not as a tool for description, but as a site of negotiation between visibility and erasure. The works hover between portraiture and landscape, presence and absence, reflecting how racialized identities are often read through fragmented or inadequate frameworks. By obscuring literal representation, Warden foregrounds the emotional and psychological dimensions of perception, challenging the viewer to confront how meaning is projected rather than discovered.
The exhibition extends into an adjacent room with a projected video work that deepens this exploration of time, movement, and embodied experience. Here, stillness gives way to rhythm and duration, reinforcing the idea that identity is not static but continually in flux. The moving image echoes the tactile qualities of Warden’s photographic practice, emphasizing process as an essential component of understanding.
Rooted in sustained research and experimentation,
Mimesis reflects Warden’s broader interdisciplinary practice, which engages language, materiality, and representation with quiet rigor. The exhibition invites viewers to sit with ambiguity, acknowledging that identity cannot be fully captured or translated. Instead, it emerges through layered impressions, partial readings, and moments of recognition that remain open, unresolved, and deeply human.
Image:
Emphasis, 2015. Pigment print (piezo), 36 x 58 inches, 40 x 62 inches © Claire A. Warden