QIANA MESTRICH

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PROJECTS
︎︎︎ The Reinforcements
︎︎︎ @WorkingWOC
︎︎︎ THRALL
︎︎︎ The Black Doll
︎︎︎ Namesake
︎︎︎ Inherited Patterns
︎︎︎ The Mist in Mystic
︎︎︎ Tenderheaded
︎︎︎ Bloodlines
︎︎︎ Trust Your Struggle

BOOKS + ZINES
︎︎︎ (up)rooted
︎︎︎ Dodge & Burn
︎︎︎ TOPSY TURVY
︎︎︎ Hard To Place
︎︎︎ Some Kind of War
︎︎︎ History of the World
︎︎︎ Indivisible

INSTALLATIONS
︎︎︎NYPL 
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︎ Opening May 18, 2024: Self Adjacent Group Exhibition @ Massey Klein Gallery (NYC)


On view through July 20, 2024 
124 Forsyth Street New York, NY 10002

Massey Klein Gallery is pleased to present Self Adjacent, a group exhibition of 17 artists, curated by Sarah Irvin and Tracy Stonestreet. 

Self Adjacent explores the transformative journey of parenthood, examining how artists navigate their multiple identities within the realm of caregiving. The exhibition underscores that the reshaping of one's identity through caregiving is not a static process but rather occurs alongside diverse manifestations of the parent-as-process. Caretaking involves a continual negotiation with the child's evolving sense of self, which serves as both a reflection and a challenge to the caregiver.

This traveling exhibition began at the Visual Arts Center in Richmond, Virginia. After its conclusion at Massey Klein, it will go to the Kennedy Museum of Art in Ohio, in the fall of 2024.

The exhibition includes work by: Alberto Aguilar, Meg Arsenovic, Robin Assner-Alvey, Christa Donner, Travis Donovan, Kate Gilmore, LaToya Hobbs, Sarah Irvin, Kevin and Jennifer White-Johnson, Carmichael Jones, Courtney Kessel and Chloe Clevenger, Ahree Lee, Colleen Merrill, Qiana Mestrich, Sarah Sudhoff, Emilia White, William Glaser Wilson, and Megan Wynne.

︎2024 Baxter St Residency 




I’m excited to announce that I’ve been selected as one of the 2024 Baxter St Residents along with Arda Asena, Brandon Foushée. ⁠

As Residents, the artists will receive a stipend, much-needed resources, and access to Baxter St's community and programs for their NYC solo debut that will help raise their visibility and fuel successful sustainable careers. ⁠

My residency will begin November 2024 and as a culmination of my time at Baxter St, I will prepare a solo exhibition that will open in June 2025 - stay tuned! 

︎ Feature in Aperture Magazine 249, Winter 2022 Issue



February 3, 2023

My mother’s archive of early office pictures was featured in an essay titled “An Artist’s Photo Archive Tells a Story about Race and Labor“ by Lovia Gyarke for Aperture magazine‘s Winter 2022 “Reference” issue. 



︎Of Objects and Shadows/De Objetos y Sombras Group Exhibition at CPW Kingston, NY - Curated by Qiana Mestrich




Late Summer of 2022 I was granted the opportunity to curate a group exhibition for CPW.

The exhibition title came to me naturally and was informed by my desire to not rely on ethinicity as the common denominator amongst the artists shown. Instead, I wanted to highlight their use of formal photographic concepts of light and shadow, emphasizing their identities as photographers first. 

Nevertheless, after years of working on the Dodge & Burn blog with the goal of spotlighting the work of photographers of color, I am delighted to have been able to put together this show with exclusively Latinx artists working in photography.

Of Objects and Shadows/De Objetos y Sombras features new and recent work by Nydia Blas (Panama/USA) and William Camargo (Mexico/USA), Genesis Baez (Puerto Rico/USA), Steven Molina Contreras (El Salvador), Zoraida Lopez-Diago (Panama/USA) and myself.

On view September 17 – December 31, 2022
CPW Kingston
474 Broadway, Kingston, NY 12401


Image: Exhibition postcard featuring William Camargo’s “A Colonist is a Colonist is a Colonist” (2022)

︎Mother Nature/Human Nurture Group Exhibition at the Old Stone House (Brooklyn, NY)




On View: April 27 – June 26, 2023
Location: Old Stone House, 336 3rd Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215

Healing, breaking, regrowth, fertility, spirituality – works in this exhibition explore the complex interconnections among nature, nurture, sustenance, renewal and the cycles of life.

Mother Nature/Human Nurture presents works by artists Pamella AllenQiana Mestrich, and Dara Oshin in a range of media, including natural materials and human-made representations of the same. They investigate nature as a life source that is universal and spiritually grounding among a diverse set of cultural perspectives. Inspired by their own experiences as caregivers, all three artists eschew traditional figurative representation of motherhood and care in favor of symbolic natural elements that also have strong local and cultural associations: eggs/birds, leaves/branches, bones, seashells, mandalas.

By connecting the repetitive yet regenerative activities of caregiving with natural and spiritual phenomena, the work in this exhibition serves to elevate the role of both the “human nurturer” and the natural environment and suggest their interdependence during a time when our ability to care for both our environment and each other is under threat.

Curated by Katherine Gressel (OSH) & Grace R. Freedman (Why Not Art)