The fraught term “master” simultaneously conjures slavery, the idea of the primary (a master copy), as
well as art history (old masters, masterpiece, master/apprentice, mastery of a skill). Using rigorous and
exquisite technique rooted in centuries of artistic practice, Rosales rewrites the canon, or the master
narrative of art history, from the perspective of an Afro-Cuban American woman in the twenty-first
century. Her canvasses seamlessly weave the tales and characters of West African Yorùbá and Greek
mythology and Christianity with the canonical works and artistic techniques of the European
Renaissance. Through her visual storytelling, Rosales presents the notion of human and cultural survival
on her own terms—one that highlights the beauty and strength of Black people, particularly women,
while touching upon grand narratives of creation, tragedy, survival, and transcendence.
