March 10 - June 25, 2023
Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative
Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative features twenty paintings by the Los Angeles based artist Harmonia Rosales (b. Chicago, 1984), who seamlessly entwines the tales and characters of the Afro-Cuban Lucumí religion, Greco-Roman mythology, and Christianity with the canonical works and artistic techniques of European Old Masters. Through her vibrant and visceral paintings, she challenges the concept of the master narrative in a way that collapses the passing of millennia and bridges the vastest of oceans. For Rosales, storytelling is a journey of personal discovery and a reclamation of one’s cultural identity as a means of survival. She asks us to consider the universality of creation, tragedy, resilience, and transcendence through a Black diasporic lens.
Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative is organized by the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara. It is curated by Dr. Patricia Daigle, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.
Exhibition Programs
A Conversation with Harmonia Rosales
Join us for a conversation with exhibition artist Harmonia Rosales and Dr. Patricia Daigle, MBMA Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.
Free with museum admission | Free for members
Creolization in the Work of Harmonia Rosales
Does the work of Harmonia Rosales Africanize classical European portraiture or does it seek to approximate Black mythologies to Western ideals? Is her work politically transformative or assimilationist?
Free with museum admission | Free for members
Narration in Culture and Books- A Tour of Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative
Join local entrepreneur Jasmine Settles for an engaging tour of Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative, focusing on the narrative aspect of the exhibition. Settles is owner of Café Noir Bookstore and Café that features books by Black, PoC, and LGBTQI+ authors.
Free with admission | Free for museum members
Lush Beauty - A Tour of Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative
Beauty is a recurring theme in Harmonia Rosales’ lush paintings, which often challenge accepted standards of beauty and social expectations of women. Join Chasity Monroe, owner of Pink Noire Beauty Supply and Cosmetics for a tour of the exhibition to learn more.
Free with museum admission | Free for Members
Beyond the Blossoms - A Tour of Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative
Are you interested in learning more about the variety of flowers that are depicted on the extraordinary paintings by Harmonia Rosales? Join us for a tour, led by Verushka Wilson, owner of Mane Wildling, a local boutique florist.
Free with museum admission | Free for members
Artist
Curators
Artist + Curator
Harmonia Rosales
Harmonia Rosales (b. 1984, Chicago, Illinois) is an Afro-Cuban American artist currently based in Los Angeles, California. Her exquisite canvases navigate and question received narratives from ancient myths, Biblical stories, classical antiquity, and Afro-Cuban culture, while challenging Eurocentric perceptions of beauty. Inspired by the techniques found in Renaissance paintings, Rosales uses oil and gold to decolonize the canon and focus on the empowerment of Black women through a diasporic lens.
Her work has been shown in various group and solo exhibitions including Femme Touch at the Andy Warhol Museum (2020) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Miss Education: Reclaiming Our Identity at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (2020) in Brooklyn, New York, and most recently Harmonia Rosales: Entwined at the Art, Architecture & Design Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara (2022). Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative (2023) is the artist’s first major touring exhibition and catalogue. Her work is held by public institutions across the U.S.including the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island; Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, Massachusetts; Smithsonian National Museum of African American History, Washington, D.C.; AD&A Museum, Santa Barbara, California; and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee.
Harmonia Rosales
Harmonia Rosales (b. 1984, Chicago, Illinois) is an Afro-Cuban American artist currently based in Los Angeles, California. Her exquisite canvases navigate and question received narratives from ancient myths, Biblical stories, classical antiquity, and Afro-Cuban culture, while challenging Eurocentric perceptions of beauty. Inspired by the techniques found in Renaissance paintings, Rosales uses oil and gold to decolonize the canon and focus on the empowerment of Black women through a diasporic lens.
Her work has been shown in various group and solo exhibitions including Femme Touch at the Andy Warhol Museum (2020) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Miss Education: Reclaiming Our Identity at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (2020) in Brooklyn, New York, and most recently Harmonia Rosales: Entwined at the Art, Architecture & Design Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara (2022). Harmonia Rosales: Master Narrative (2023) is the artist’s first major touring exhibition and catalogue. Her work is held by public institutions across the U.S.including the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island; Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, Massachusetts; Smithsonian National Museum of African American History, Washington, D.C.; AD&A Museum, Santa Barbara, California; and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee.
Dr. Patricia Daigle
Patricia Lee Daigle is the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. She previously served as Director of The Martha and Robert Fogelman Galleries of Contemporary Art at the University of Memphis and Curatorial Assistant in Contemporary Art at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Daigle received her Ph.D. in the History of Art and Architecture from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
Dr. Patricia Daigle
Patricia Lee Daigle is the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. She previously served as Director of The Martha and Robert Fogelman Galleries of Contemporary Art at the University of Memphis and Curatorial Assistant in Contemporary Art at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. Daigle received her Ph.D. in the History of Art and Architecture from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Program Recordings
Resources
The 901 Black American Portraits Soundtrack
Listen to a soundtrack of Memphis music that exemplifies Black Love, Power, and Joy. The 901 Black American Portraits Soundtrack celebrates the vibrant legacy and future of Black musicians in the city of Memphis. This playlist was curated by Jared “Jay B” Boyd, a Memphis-based multimedia artist, journalist, DJ, and on-air personality.
MCA Exhibition Questionnaire
Help us generate the fullest picture possible of the MCA experience.
Submitting a questionnaire, which includes a request for an image of an artwork, is essential to be considered for part of the exhibition.
Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?
The American art theorist Linda Nochlin (1931-2017) posed this question as the title of a pioneering article in 1971. This essay was considered one of the first major works of Feminist art history, it has become a set text for those who study art internationally, and it is influential in many other fields.