Harmonia Rosales is an Afro-Latina artist who does one thing we can totally get behind – she ‘flips the art canvas script’ literally, by doing her own take of the world’s most renowned works of art (with male subjects, white males) with Black women/ women of color as the subjects instead. If you had an art history college course or two, you will see a pattern, those masterpieces usually have a white male as the ‘master’. Rosales is challenging that ideal!
My art is born out of a combination of my love for history, thirst for endless new knowledge, and dedication to social action.
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By creating ‘a bold new contemporary counter-narrative’, Harmonia who is Afro-Cubana is able to tell a different story, one that is an act of resistance. Her work is groundbreaking, meaningful, and has gotten a lot of people mad. For instance, she reimagined God as a black woman and the other characters also black women, in Michelangelo’s ‘Creation of Adam’ the original famously painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (Vatican City). Rosale’s ‘version’ oil painting went viral on social media with LIKES and positive comments and of course invited the haters and trolls.
Well, isn’t that what art is supposed to do? Evoke emotion, thought, and reaction? We think so. The attention gained the Afro-Latina artist Rosales much deserved recognition especially attracting celebrity supporters like Samuel Jackson, Erykah Badu, and others as buyers and collectors.
Other works from Rosale’s first collection B.I.T.C.H (Black Imaginary To Counter Hegemony)) include versions Birth of Oshun (Botticelli’s Birth of Venus), The Virtuous Woman (Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Vitruvian Man) and The Virgin (Virgin Mary) among others.
In an interview with Buzzfeed, Rosales shared her Chicagoan upbringing “I was raised in a creative environment,” she said. Rosales also noted that “artistic expression was floating in the air” in her household growing up. Her mother is an artist and her father, a musically inclined guy, played the congas.”
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We look forward to more Rosale’s work and continued mission to disrupt the narrative. Select art works are available for purchase on her site.
Harmonia Rosales, we salute you!
Updated 2/9/2021
