"Meet the Artist" with Qiana Mestrich

On Thursday, May 2, we welcome Qiana Mestrich to “Meet the Artist” night at CPW. Mestrich will be presenting her work on @WorkingWOC, an independent, digital archive that visualizes the labor history of Black and other (immigrant) women of color in America’s workplace focusing on the period in between the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the early 2000s. She will be selling copies of TOPSY TURVY (2022), which is a limited-edition zine that presents the second installment of The Black Doll series, a collection of non-gestural, digital images rooted in the aesthetic tradition of geometric abstraction. This event will be live-streamed on CPW’s YouTube Page at 6 pm.

Join us every Thursday evening at CPW, when we host illuminating talks with local and visiting artists. “Meet the Artist” allows the public to get to know new work, to hear about artistic processes, and to meet friends and other local artists. The evening takes place at CPW’s gallery at 474 Broadway in Kingston, NY. It is free and open to the public. Coffee, tea, and snacks are served. “Meet the Artist” is made possible by a generous grant from the Arnold and Augusta Newman Foundation.

Qiana Mestrich is an interdisciplinary artist, photo historian, writer and digital marketing professional who lives and works between Brooklyn and Saugerties, NY. Born to immigrant parents from Panama and Croatia, Mestrich's artwork and research interests engage issues around mixed-race identity, motherhood/mothering, women’s labor histories and fashion as self empowerment. Mestrich has been exhibited worldwide including the London Art Fair’s Photo50 in 2018 and the BRIC Biennial Volume III in 2019. Mestrich’s work is held in the Peggy Cooper Cafritz collection of contemporary art and private collections in the United States. Knowledge sharing and community building is a vital part of Mestrich’s practice. In 2007 she founded Dodge & Burn: Decolonizing Photography History (est. 2007), an arts initiative that aims to diversify the medium’s history by advocating for photographers of color. Dodge & Burn began as a blog and now functions as a monthly critique group that meets in person in New York City and virtually. Her forthcoming book based on the blog’s past interviews is to be published by Routledge/Taylor & Francis.

Banner images © Qiana Mestrich.