Miami New Times' Mastermind Awards honors the city's most inspiring creatives. This year, we received more than 150 submissions, which our staff narrowed to an elite group of 30. We'll be profiling our honorable mentions, and eventually the finalists, in the weeks to come. This year's three Mastermind Award winners will be announced March 8 at Artopia, our annual soiree celebrating Miami culture. For tickets and more information, visit the website.
Regina Jestrow
Regina Jestrow's needle-work makes the mice from Cinderella look like, well, amateurs. Yeah, princess, we said it. Paying homage to the American quilt, Jestrow's fabric installations and other artistic creations focus primarily on plant forms and geometric patterns -- so, yeah, we kinda wouldn't mind her designing our next party dress.
She's not a Miami native, but who cares. Originally from Queens, New York, Jestrow attributes her quilting and sewing to her mom, a long-time knitter and seamstress. Mama Jestrow made clothes for the entire family and taught her kids various forms of needle-work. After courses at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology, FIU and Miami-Dade College, Jestrow took up her mother's craft and began showing off her work in craft fairs and galleries between 2005 to 2007. In recent years, Jestrow has been a resident artist at Bakehouse Art Complex and has had the opportunity to show her work at ArtCenter/South Florida.
"The installation pieces I create are for people to immerse themselves and interact with, whether walking under, through, or into the art," she said.
The materials she uses are inspired by her own family values and heritage, geometric shapes, and the structures that surround her in the world. Jestrow told us she uses a lot of repeating patterns, growth, and structure, within her art. "Most of my installations hang from the ceiling... I think because I like the challenge of trying to make things look weightless and still," she explained.
"The geometric pieces play with color, light, and space, and how your eyes dance through layers of different materials," she told us.
Oh, they're dancing all right. Keep on dancing, sister.
Honorable Mentions:
Bannavis Andrew Sribyata
Sarah Kontoff Baker
Jason Snyder
Valeria Yamamoto
Jayme Gershen
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