![\"Harmonia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758295328_881_960x0.png\")
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Harmonia Rosales<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Harmonia Rosales<\/p>\n
Renowned artist Harmonia Rosales<\/a> is embarking on her highly anticipated debut book tour for Chronicles of Ori: An African Epic, a richly layered literary extension of her visual work reimagining African mythology. The book, set for release on October 14, builds upon Rosales\u2019 long-standing exploration of the Orishas\u2014deities of the Yoruba tradition\u2014through her signature fusion of classical technique and Afrofuturist storytelling.<\/p>\n For years, Rosales has used the canvas to challenge Eurocentric ideals of divinity, beauty, and power. Her work recasts Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces with Black protagonists, reclaiming a space in Western art history that has long excluded the Black experience. That journey began with a simple but profound observation from her daughter: \u201cThey don\u2019t look like me.\u201d It was a moment that crystallized the absence\u2014and urgent need\u2014for representation within traditional art historical narratives.<\/p>\n Since 2017, Rosales has turned that absence into a bold visual language\u2014one that not only centers West African spirituality but also traces its survival through colonization, enslavement, and the transatlantic slave trade. Chronicles of Ori carries that vision onto the page, weaving together cosmology, memory, and imagination to forge a mythology rooted in the African diaspora.\u201cWhat I\u2019m really doing is constructing a larger Black mythology\u2014or better yet, Afropantheology,\u201d Rosales explains. \u201cA place where stories, spirituality, and history are one. During colonization, the Orishas were masked under Catholic saints as a means of survival. I chose to work in a classical European style to reclaim the visual space where they were once hidden. It\u2019s not about imitation; it\u2019s about transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n Oranmiyan\u2019s Legacy by Harmonia Rosales.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Harmonia Rosales<\/p>\n In both her paintings and her book, Rosales practices what she calls figurative realism with purpose: inserting Black gods, Black stories, and Black imagination into a canon that has excluded them for centuries. She doesn\u2019t limit herself to one medium\u2014she paints, she sculpts, and now, she writes. Her artistry is about boundary-pushing, truth-telling, and creating spaces for stories that have long been silenced.<\/p>\n The emotional weight of her work lies in its storytelling. Every figure, gesture, and symbol in her paintings is layered with myth, memory, and lived experience. \u201cI paint the Orishas not as distant gods but as deeply human\u2014mothers, warriors, lovers, protectors. Their stories hold both beauty and pain, survival and divinity,\u201d Rosales says. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just about looking back. It\u2019s about reclaiming memory to repair trauma and move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Collectors of Rosales\u2019s work range from celebrities like LeBron James and Nas to art curators, scholars, and first-time collectors. Yet the draw isn\u2019t status\u2014it\u2019s preservation. For many, acquiring her work is a conscious act of ensuring that these images and stories endure in the cultural canon. \u201cMy collectors aren\u2019t just buying paintings,\u201d Rosales shares. \u201cThey\u2019re participating in a legacy, helping to embed these narratives in history.\u201d<\/p>\n Eve and the Orishas by Harmonia Rosales.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Harmonia Rosales<\/p>\n With Chronicles of Ori, Rosales extends that legacy. The book delves into the mythological and spiritual roots of the Orishas, following their journey from West African cosmologies, across the Atlantic, and into the diasporic experience. It\u2019s a work that reaches across time and space, refusing to let the story begin in chains.\u201cToo often, Black stories are told as if they begin with oppression. But our origins are rooted in brilliance, in divinity,\u201d Rosales says. \u201cI wanted to create a mythology that centers that, something expansive enough to give the Black diaspora a foundation of strength and wonder.\u201d<\/p>\n She approached the book as she would a painting\u2014layer by layer\u2014crafting a narrative that spans continents and centuries. It is at once historical and imaginative, deeply rooted and wildly visionary.\u201cSome of the most powerful moments in the book are when myth and history collide,\u201d Rosales notes. \u201cAn Orisha steps into a scene of enslavement and transforms how we see it. Those moments remind us that the gods were with us. They crossed oceans with us. And they still speak to us today.\u201d<\/p>\n The Chronicles of Ori book tour kicks off in September with major stops including the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Perez Art Museum Miami, and The National Gallery in the UK. Along the way, Rosales will be joined by special guests and fellow creatives, including friend and collector Bozoma Saint John in Atlanta, curator and author Kimberly Drew in London, and acclaimed textile artist Bisa Butler in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n Chronicles of Ori is now available for pre-order.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Harmonia Rosales<\/p>\n But Chronicles of Ori is just one part of Rosales\u2019 growing cultural imprint. Earlier this year, she unveiled a major public sculpture at King\u2019s Chapel in Boston, honoring over 219 enslaved individuals connected to the church\u2019s history. In January 2026, she will exhibit at the Getty Center in Los Angeles in Beginnings: The Story of Creation in the Middle Ages, where her paintings will appear in dialogue with rare medieval manuscripts. \u201cIt\u2019s powerful to see this message reflected across so many platforms\u2014sacred spaces, books, and museums,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause the fight has always been about inserting our stories into the Western canon. Our history doesn\u2019t begin with enslavement. It begins in cosmology, in brilliance, in myth.\u201d<\/p>\n Chronicles of Ori is now available for pre-order<\/a>. The book tour will also be open to the public in Boston, <\/a>San Francisco,<\/a> Philadelphia<\/a> and Memphis<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harmonia Rosales Courtesy of Harmonia Rosales Renowned artist Harmonia Rosales is embarking on her highly anticipated debut book…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[67964,67963,67965,457,67962,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-147607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-african-artist","tag-african-epic","tag-african-literature","tag-books","tag-chronicles-of-ori","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}