Harmonia Rosales

Rosales was born on February 6, 1984, in Chicago, Illinois, to Cuban-born Giraldo Rosales and Jamaican-Jewish illustrator Melodye Benson Rosales. She was raised in the Santería religious tradition.

As a child she was the model for the original American Girl Addy illustrations, painted by her mother.^[5]

Rosales pursued a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her artistic style is characterized by a vibrant color palette and compositions that draw from influences that include Afrocentric motifs and classical European art. Rosales exhibited her work in various reputable venues including the Museum of the African Diaspora and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Through her work and active dialogues on race, gender, and identity, she has become a voice in discussions surrounding representation in contemporary art. She engages with audiences on critical issues through interviews, panel discussions, and social media fostering awareness.

In 2017, Rosales posted an image, The Creation of God, on social media, of her first completed work for her solo exhibition Black Imaginary To Counter Hegemony. The painting is an oil-on-canvas piece that took two months to craft. In this painting, Rosales recreates Michelangelo's Creazione di Adamo (The Creation of Adam) by displaying both God and Adam as Black women. The Creation of Adam shows Jehovah's finger and the elegant, naked body of the first man. In contrast, the painting created by Rosales shows God as a black woman and creates the illusion of the heavens as a womb from which she is birthing Eve in an act of strength and empowerment. This image was created to show that White subjects are the standard in classic art while challenging the viewer to consider why that practice is commonly accepted.

Harmonia Rosales was featured in the Scholl Lecture series, organized by the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida, in the fall of 2025. Rosales sat in conversation with professional football player and art collection Desmond Howard.^[6]