Ming Smith,
America Seen Through Stars and Stripes (Painted), 1976, c.2000
'The crimson and white [...] amplify the cascading American flags that enmesh a black figure who, in turn, gazes coolly outward from behind mirrored shades. By adding layers of exposure and pigment, Smith took what might have been a lyrical scene in the vein of Helen Levitt and infused it with the turbulence of an era' (Ian Bourland,
Artforum, 2020)
Ming Smith (born Detroit, Michigan) lives and works in Harlem, New York. Her work has been presented in seminal exhibitions such as
Soul of Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate Modern, London (2017);
We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women 1965-85, Brooklyn Museum, New York (2017), and
Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (2010). Her work is included in
Working Together: The Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop, now on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Upcoming exhibitions include
Just Above Midtown: 1974 to the Present, MoMA, New York. In addition to Baltimore Museum of Art, collections include Brooklyn Museum, New York; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Philadelphia Museum of Art; National Gallery of Art, Washington; MoMA, New York; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, amongst others.
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