Aug 18 - Dec 6, 2023
Spelman Museum of Fine Art
Atlanta, GA

Master Narrative: Touring

The fraught term “master” simultaneously conjures slavery, the idea of the primary (a master copy), and art history (old masters, masterpiece, master/apprentice, mastery of a skill). Using rigorous and exquisite techniques rooted in centuries of artistic practice, Harmonia Rosales rewrites the canon, or the master narrative of art history, from the perspective of an Afro-Cuban American woman in the twenty-first century. Her canvases seamlessly weave the tales and characters of West African Yorùbá and Greek mythology and Christianity with the canonical works and artistic techniques of the European Renaissance. Through her visual storytelling, Rosales presents the notion of human and cultural survival on her own terms — one that highlights the beauty and strength of Black people, particularly women, while touching upon grand narratives of creation, tragedy, survival, and transcendence.

Featured Artwork

Ori

Birth of Oshun

Dinis Dias: Land of the Negroes

Ogun

King Shango

Beyond the Peonies

White Lion

Yemaya’s Ascension into the Waters

Migration of the Gods

Still We Rise

Yemaya Meets Erinle

Jeggua Meets Shango

Strangler Fig: Adam and Eve

Garden of Eve

Our Lady of Regla

Portrait of Eve

Oshosi Gets His Crown

Oba and Her Ear

Creation Story

Featured Press

CNN
Afro-Cuban artist reimagines Renaissance art with Black people at the center

Essence
Harmonia Rosales Challenges History’s Perceptions With ‘Master Narrative’

ARTnews
The Atlanta University Center Has Long Been a Home for Robust Scholarship of Black Art History

The Atlanta Voice
Master Narratives by Harmonia Rosales is at the Spelman Museum of Fine Art

ARTS ATL
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