Backroads

Backroads are often avoided by mainstream traffic, the weathered roads that wind through rural land where cell service is lost and trees outnumber people. For artists Emma Barnes and Aciey Canty, the backroads represent the nuances of home, childhood, and the journey between where they are departing and arriving.
In this Lightning Residency exhibition, both artists approach landscape, home, and rural upbringing through different perspectives and materials. Canty applies his lens of black and white photography to capture the beauty in abandoned or forgotten spaces. Barnes pieces together quilt patterns, family photos, plaster, and paint in order to navigate time, comfort, and change. In Backroads both artists take the retrospective road of reflecting on the parts of themselves that are staying and leaving.

Aciey Canty
I am a 21-year-old photographer that grew up in the small town of Cottageville, SC. I have always had an interest in cameras and documenting the world around me. I enjoy street photography, and I utilize both digital and film photography mediums for my work. 

Emma Barnes
Emma Barnes is a multi-disciplinary artist from Islandton, South Carolina, who studied at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities (2008-2010) and earned a BFA in Painting & Printmaking and a double major in Gender Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2014. She completed an MFA in Painting, Drawing, and Photography at Alfred University’s Düsseldorf program in 2022. Barnes has participated in various art residencies, including Athena Standards in Athens, Greece (2019), and currently teaches art at USCB and a high school in Beaufort, SC. She actively exhibits her work at venues across the country.