Art Convo with Harmonia Rosales: Reclaiming our Identity

Our Lady of Regla, 2019. Oil and 24k gold leaf on panel. Courtesy of MoCADA.

“The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.”

These unfortunate truths, declared by the eternal Malcolm X in 1962, still ring furiously true today. As many demand justice for the murder of Breonna Taylor, and the killings of Black trans womxn including Nina Pop, Riah Milton, Dominique “Rem’Mie” Fells, Brayla Stone, the death of Layleen Polanco, (and countless cis and trans Black womxn, including Sandra Bland, Korryn Gaines, Muhlaysia Booker, etc.), Black womxn, specifically, continue to uplift and empower one another. We have to because we are all we have. 

Harmonia Rosales, an Afro-Cuban American contemporary painter, elevates Black womxn to extraordinary plateaus in her very grand and sweeping oil paintings. Rejecting white maleness that’s been force-fed to us over centuries by Western culture, the Chicago native rightfully centers Black womxn as the protagonists in her Renaissance-inspired canvases. In her latest exhibit, Miss Education: Reclaiming Our Identity, which opened this past March at MOCADA, Rosales explores the United States’ puritanical values, and how it has denied the foundational position Black womxn play in society and history. In Miss Education, using exquisite detail and rich colors, Rosales unpacks meaningful themes using Renaissance aesthetics (such as Black cherubs), Symbolism techniques (Rosales uses symbols to communicate specific messages on the many nuances of Black femininity), “The Mitochondrial Eve Gene,”  Yoruba Orishas, and others, for the seven new works in the exhibit.

In “Ambushed,” for instance, a lion, a wolf, a bull, and various fowl attack a Black woman, symbolizing the seven European nations who ravaged Africa through colonization and imperialism. In “Our Lady of Regla,” we see the Yoruba deity, Yemaya, goddess of the ocean, in a queenly blue robe holding baby Eve. Yemaya is imperfect, her scarred cheek a metaphor for the peril Black bodies suffered physically and culturally as a result of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, yet she still carried us through. 

In a generous and thoughtful conversation, Rosales explains her mission to uphold Black female figures, the reasons for pouring her Afro-Cuban identity and connection to Santería into her paintings, and encouraging her two Black children to embrace being early mentors. 

For your most recent show, Miss Education: Reclaiming Our Identity, in regards to the main title’s play on words, i.e. Miss Education, can you expand on how you center Black womxn as fundamental across humanity? 

Because in my experience the true Black woman has been gravely overlooked in society. Through media bias and self-objectification we have become some sort of over-sexualized, aggressive, uneducated “thing” in society. That is not a Black woman. Black women and all women from the African diaspora are beautiful, strong, intelligent and should be seen on a high pedestal. 

In the show’s subtitle, Reclaiming Our Identity, can you speak on the joy and responsibility in placing Black womxn in famous Renaissance paintings?

I do not just paint women of color in “famous” paintings for aesthetic reasons. I reimagine the story behind the image to incorporate what isn’t so easily addressed in history (or I should say omitted). The story generally stays the same but the meaning behind it changes significantly; perceptions of beauty, how we view women, how we view each other, and continue to ask ourselves why we’ve accepted the version that’s been force-fed to us for so long. We’re all human and we need to be seen as equal.

I’d like to learn about your research process in helping you create new works for the show.

My art is very personal and has a lot to do with not only addressing racism, but colorism, and shadism as well. My art has always stemmed from my experiences as a woman of color. I try not to address surface issues because all that creates is a band-aid over a wound that will not heal. Every emotion, attack, perception, and so on, that a person feels has a rooted issue that I address in my work.

Fully robed or showing their nude body, the Black womxn in your paintings are always draped in elegant clothes. Can you talk about those fashion choices?

There’s always a reason for everything I paint. If you look closely at the robes, oftentimes the patterns either reflect the God’s offerings or an African symbol that explains the painting in its entirety.

Ambushed, 2019. Oil on panel with 24k gold leaf. Courtesy of MoCADA.

Being Afro-Cuban, personally what does it mean to include elements of Santería and Yoruba deities into your practice? 

It’s an oral religion that has survived years and that we’ve preserved through the Atlantic slave trade. That in itself deserves to be presented in a beautiful light that is meant to educate people who never knew of it before.  I also wanted to honor my ancestors and my late grandmother. Santería is a part of me no matter if I fully practice it or not.  It’s in my blood, my upbringing, and the way that I approach life.

You have two Black children, and you’ve carved out a successful image of being a thriving Black woman artist for your daughter. Can you speak to this?

 It's important for me to have my daughter see herself as beautiful and strong, and to fully love herself. I teach my kids that they are mentors whether they choose to be or not. To teach them that we all, especially from the African Diaspora, have to empower each other. Most of us are walking around with missing pieces of ourselves, wounded by society’s perception and treatment of us. By empowering each other we empower ourselves, generation after generation.  

How are you balancing your artistry, self-care, and family during these quarantine times?

I’m going to be very honest here, I started off with routines and schedules…that didn’t work for very long. My children are no problem but the actual schooling part was draining me mentally. I found myself too exhausted to paint. It actually took a lot of strength producing the two pieces of work I’ve created so far in quarantine. However, I’ve received so much support from people and that really gave me encouragement to continue creating.

What shifts do you think your art practice will take when the lockdown ends? 

Honestly, I’m not sure. I do know that people are hurting during this time and are lashing out at anyone and anything. It's resurfacing a lot of suppressed emotions that are completely justified but can be very hurtful. Having found myself in the crosshairs of such intense emotions I revisit the feeling of not being “enough” and addressing where the root of this issue stems out of. And from that dynamic, art is born.

This interview originally appeared on The Latinx Project’s Intervenxions in July 2020.

Cherubs, 2019. Oil and 24k gold leaf on panel. Courtesy of MoCADA.