10/12/2026
If you haven't seen the exhibition "A Clearing: Word, Image, Body" yet, we invite you to come check it out and spend some time with the work of Benjamin Smith
In his installation, "Black Classical," he poses the question: what composition emerges when a city listens to itself? As the artist explains, this mixed-media installation grew out of his ongoing, socially engaged practice in East Cleveland. The work assembles resident voices, portraits, original music, vinyl, print, vintage technologies, and reclaimed architectural remnants.
As Smith elaborates, the foundation of "Black Classical" "is Little-Bit: Economies of Attention, a listening and portrait project beginning with a simple question: What brings you joy? Conversations with residents become recordings and portraits made using low-resolution gaming technologies. Rather than resolving these encounters into a single account of place, [I] allow voices, images, and memories to accumulate."
From the Little-Bit portraits, Smith translates these social interactions into original compositions that are recorded onto vinyl. As he sees it, "[v]oices answer voices; images encounter sound; architectural remnants carry physical traces of place. Like a musical score, meaning develops through repetition, improvisation, interruption, and relation."
Through vintage record players, visitors can listen to these conversations with residents of East Cleveland, Smith's musical compositions that translate those listening sessions, and even answer the artist's prompt about joy by recording their own reflections in a ledger on display.
Image: Benjamin Smith, "Black Classical," 2026. Mixed-media installation comprising reclaimed architectural materials, digital prints from images made with vintage digital technologies, recorded voices, original music, vinyl records, artist’s book, and vintage audio-visual equipment.
Exhibition Dates: September 10–October 30, 2026
Gallery | Store hours:
Wednesday 12pm - 5:00pm
Friday 12pm - 5:00pm
Saturday 12pm - 4:00pm
