Creator/Creation: Conversation with Harmonia Rosales

Why It Matters

By integrating African cosmology with medieval Christian imagery, the exhibition reshapes dominant origin narratives, fostering a more diverse and critical understanding of cultural heritage.

Key Takeaways

• Getty exhibition pairs medieval manuscripts with Harmonia Rosales' reinterpretations
• Rosales blends African cosmology, gender fluidity into Genesis narratives
• Curators highlight cyclical creation motifs across cultures and centuries
• Symbolic snake and fig illustrate manipulation, transformation, and identity loss
• Exhibition invites audiences to reconsider origins through inclusive, interdisciplinary lens

Summary

The Getty Center hosted a conversation with artist Harmonia Rosales to accompany the museum’s "Beginnings" exhibition, which juxtaposes medieval creation manuscripts with contemporary reinterpretations of origin myths. Curators Lissa Golamon and Beth Morrison framed the show around the Christian Genesis narrative while also presenting non‑Christian texts, emphasizing how societies across time visualize the act of creation.

Rosales explained that she was drawn to the meticulous visual language of the medieval codices but sought to infuse them with African cosmology, where creation is a simultaneous, non‑linear event. She reimagines the Trinity as the sun, Odua as the nurturing ocean, and Olumare as the male seed, arranging these forces around a central Mother‑Nature figure. The artist also employs the snake and strangler‑fig motifs to comment on manipulation, transformation, and the erasure of identity across generations.

Specific examples highlighted include the 12th‑century Stamheim manuscript’s circular composition, which places Adam and Eve at the center of a cosmic wheel, and Rosales’s own canvas that mirrors this structure while inserting African deities and a gilded‑cage background. Curators praised the balance of the installation, noting how the medieval piece prepares viewers for Rosales’s revelation, creating a dialogue between historic and contemporary visual cultures.

The exhibition challenges visitors to rethink canonical creation stories through an inclusive, interdisciplinary lens, suggesting that museums can serve as platforms for cultural reclamation. By merging medieval European iconography with African diaspora perspectives, the show expands the narrative of origins, prompting broader conversations about gender, ecology, and the politics of representation in art institutions.

Original Description

The exhibition "Beginnings: The Story of Creation in the Middle Ages" includes medieval artworks that visualize the Biblical creation of Earth, accompanied by recent paintings by Harmonia Rosales, a nationally renowned Afro-Cuban American artist based in Los Angeles. Rosales explores the universal themes of life, death, and rebirth through a compelling and often unexpected recasting of historic iconography, including the addition of Black figures and West African spirituality. In this conversation, Getty curators Larisa Grollemond and Beth Morrison talk with Rosales about the influence of medieval imagery on her work, and how her process leads to paintings that challenge, complicate, and reframe the historic works.

This program was presented at the Getty Center and Online on Sunday, March 1, 2026, https://www.getty.edu/calendar/harmonia-rosales/

Subscribe to the Getty Museum YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/gettymuseum?sub_confirmation=1

#GettyMuseum #manuscripts #HarmoniaRosales #LarisaGrollemond #BethMorrison