Black Baroque

Influenced by her multicultural Afro-Cuban background, Harmonia Rosales’s (B. 1984, Chicago, IL) primary artistic concern focuses on Black female empowerment through a diasporic lens. Her work seamlessly entwines the oral narratives and deities of West African Yorùbá religion, Greco-Roman mythology, and Christianity with the artistic techniques of the Renaissance masters. For Rosales, reimagining hegemonic narratives preserves the memory of her ancestral lineage and functions to champion resilience and question Eurocentric notions of beauty. While her subjects serve as conduits for the internal struggles of a disempowered society, Rosales encourages her onlookers to possess more sympathy, empathy, and empowerment.