Qiana Mestrich, Susan Bright | An Artist Dialogue Series Event

Date and Time
November 22, 2014
Event Details

FREE - The Corner Room doors open at 2:00 p.m.

Join us for a conversation between artist Qiana Mestrich and curator Susan Bright on how an American chemical company made fashion history and inspired thousands of mothers to name their children after a nylon fabric.

From Inherited Patterns, Untitled #2 (Geoffrey Beene evening separates), digital inkjet print on DuPont™ Tyvek® Vivia, 30 x 23 inches, 2014.
From Inherited Patterns, Untitled #2 (Geoffrey Beene evening separates), digital inkjet print on DuPont™ Tyvek® Vivia, 30 x 23 inches, 2014.

This conversation explores the artist’s research into the creation of DuPont’s Qiana® nylon fabric whose branding permeated the African American community in which it became a uniquely popular girl’s name from the late 1960s to early ‘80s. This dialogue is in context with Mestrich’s Inherited Patterns and Necked photo collage work on view as part of Photo Walls in Picture Collection and Art in the Windows exhibitions series.

Qiana Mestrich is a photobased visual artist, writer and mother from Brooklyn, NY. A 2013 graduate of the ICPBard College MFA in Advanced Photographic Practice, her autobiographical work establishes a study of heritage within complex and convoluted visual histories. She is the founder of Dodge & Burn: Diversity in Photography History, which profiles photographers of color. Her critical writing has also been published in art journals such as Nueva Luz, ARC Magazine and SPE’s exposure. In 2012, she coedited (with fellow ICPBard alumna Michi Jigarjian) How We Do Both: Art and Motherhood (Secretary Press), a book about and by contemporary artist mothers. Qiana Mestrich is also an experienced digital marketing professional (SEO and Social Media) with a fourteen year career working within large corporations and international brands. She is currently the marketing consultant at the International Center for Photography.

From Inherited Patterns, Untitled #10 (Dress in Qiana nylon by Ole Borden for Rembrandt), digital inkjet print on DuPont™ Tyvek® Vivia, 30 x 23 inches, 2014.
From Inherited Patterns, Untitled #10 (Dress in Qiana nylon by Ole Borden for Rembrandt), digital inkjet print on DuPont™ Tyvek® Vivia, 30 x 23 inches, 2014.

Susan Bright is a British curator and writer based in New York. Her curatorial practice operates across exhibitions, writing, public speaking, and teaching. Particular research interests include self-portraiture, specializing in the representation of mothers across fine art and the media. She was formerly Assistant Curator at the National Portrait Gallery and Acting Director for the MA Photography program at Sotheby's Institute of Art, London. She was Visiting Artist in the MFA Photography Program at The Arts Institute Boston in the spring of 2014. Recent exhibitions include Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood (The Photographers' Gallery and Foundling Museum, London), Something Out Of Nothing (Fotogalleriet, Oslo), How We Are: Photographing Britain (cocurated with Val Williams, Tate Britain) and Face of Fashion at the National Portrait Gallery, London. She is author of Art Photography Now (2005 and 2011) and Auto Focus: The Self Portrait in Contemporary Photography (2010) both published by Thames and Hudson.

Initiated and organized by Arezoo Moseni in 2004, Artist Dialogues Series provide an open forum for understanding and appreciation of contemporary art. Artists are paired with critics, curators, gallerists, writers or other artists to converse about art and the potential of exploring new ideas.