Rozeal.

Rozeal. (formerly known as Iona Rozeal Brown) has an extensive education, beginning with a Bachelor of Sciences in Kinesiological Sciences from the University of Maryland in 1991.

She studied at the Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn, NY, starting in 1996, and later attended the San Francisco Art Institute, earning her BFA, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in the late 1990s. She completed her Master of Fine Arts at Yale University in 2002.

She has a deep musical background, trained in classical guitar from ages 7-19, and began to DJ professionally during her time at Yale University. Her interest in Japanese youth lead to recognizing their appreciation and appropriation of hip-hop culture as well as the phenomena known as Burupan and Ganguro.

Her earlier blackface series mines the rich cross-cultural territory of ganguro and burapan, subcultures of Japanese adolescents that sport tanned skin, bright makeup, blonde wigs, and gold chains to model themselves after the stereotypical, African-American hip-hop look. According to many sources, the word ganguro translates to “blackface.”

Rozeal.’s color and cross-cultural subject matter merges folklore traditions, contemporary pop culture, autobiography, gender studies, and art history into a singular fantastical narrative. Her figurative paintings bear references ranging from JRR Tolkien to Erykah Badu to Adinkra symbolism to the artist’s childhood in Washington, D.C., during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The artist combines disparate elements into an elaborate allegory that feels both otherworldly and universal.

Works Available

The visual conventions of Japanese ukiyo-e and shunga, the Japanese tradition of erotic art, play a strong role in Rozeal.’s body of work, “Coupledom, (REDEEM THE TIME!),” which is laden with intimacy.

The paintings of the last decade feature embracing couples, each assigned to their cozy atmosphere (sometimes referred to as a pod). Luxury accessories like strands of pearls and oversized gold jewelry are collaged throughout the compositions, as are walls of speakers. From a series initially called “All I Ever Wanted . . . (My God . . . my man!),” inspired by the Lenny Kravitz/SeanTaro Ono Lennon tune “All I Ever Wanted,” most of the works are titled with an accompanying haiku as well scripture from The Holy Scriptures in The Song of Songs.

The artist’s revisiting of [Japanese artist Kitagawa] Utamaro’s imagery and shunga, the erotic prints of late–Edo Japan, sparked the series’ focus on representations of sensuality and sexuality. Even today, the artist posits, these themes are often presented as merely a barrage of images, leaving nothing to the imagination.

Rozeal. Has had solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, New York, and Washington, D.C. Rozeal.’s work has been exhibited around the world. She has been featured in many exhibitions at numerous galleries and institutions, including:

Want Not (Rescue from the Otherwise Obscene, Salvation from the Wicked) (2024-25) at the Biggs Museum
Back and Forth: Rozeal., Titian and Cézanne (26 April 2025–26 April 2026) at The National Gallery of Art
Out of Many: Reframing an American Art Collection (8 November 2025–15 February 2026) at The Phillips Collection