Qiana Mestrich focuses her series of art pieces on the abstraction to deconstruct racial stereotypes in “The Black Doll Series”. A year post the creation of the series in her base of New York, the series was later exhibited in 2018 at the London Art Fair.

 

“The Black Doll Series” is a collection of digital images rooted in the aesthetic of geometric abstraction. The edges of this edition are intentionally pixelated. The larger the image size, the more visible the pixels, which offer their own integrated element of geometry. Qiana Mestrich redefines vintage Black dolls through her own visual translation, using the power of shape, form and color to reform the art work. Qiana Mestrich as an immigrants from Panama and Croatia living and working in New York, whom makes conceptual photographs, books, and installations. Her inspiration to creat a piece such as “The Black Doll Series” reflects on her own struggles as a child to have a black doll as the mass production of black dolls only came to be in the late 19th century in Germany and France. 

 

The composition of the Dolls is centered like a classical portrait. A rich russet brown dominates the background to bring to mind the effect of light falling on the planes of a face.