Ming Smith Conjures the Future at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art

And yet, from among these tenebrous shadows, fuzzy figures and streaky motion lines, an understanding emerges. Due to their lack of definition, these artworks feel timeless, save for the appearance of identifiable figures such as Sun Ra, Malachi Favors and Grace Jones, iconic Black figures in mainstream culture that provide a sort of timestamp for the images. These prominent Black figures are photographed engaged with their respective crafts, Jones in a dressing room, Favors behind his bass on stage, Sun Ra swirling during a performance. These figures have become known as avant-gardes of music and fashion, statuses they achieved only after hard-fought years of unapologetic dedication to their Black identities and communities. Captured in the 1970s and viewed today in 2024, these photographs show that a vision of the future is already manifesting in the present if one is willing to look beyond what one knows and understands.

At the entrance to this show, and separate from the rest of the exhibition space, is a small meditation area. This darkly painted room contains several of Smith's series—photographs that have been overpainted by the artist. These additions cover the underlying image in a thick net of strokes and muted colors creating a visual static. The least visually comprehensible of any artworks in the exhibition, these artworks offer the greatest potential for invocation. As seen in Smith's portraiture, the future lies in the obscurity of the present. What, then, is present in this visual cacophony? What future may arise from this unintelligibility? As Smith shows quite plainly with her portraits of iconic Black figures, the answer is clear: the future is Black and it is mystical and it is incomprehensible and it is already forming, right in front of your eyes.