Electric Images: Ming Smith’s Transcendent Photography

Like the space it inaugurates, Ming Smith: Evidence revises the art world’s exclusionary past with an unflinching commitment to its own logic and sense of timing. 

In contrast to its more traditional surroundings, the white exterior and frameless glass door of Nicola Vassell Gallery — a much anticipated arrival in Chelsea — act as a beacon, beckoning visitors into a spacious yet intimate interior. Works in the gallery’s large first room are elegantly hung in a way that invites a slow, measured look at the selection of photographs which span Smith’s 50-year career. Unmatted, mid-sized black and white images in sleek black frames line the walls sparingly; each photograph, a statement, the frame its punctuation.