Patching: Emma Barnes
Patching is a solo exhibition by emerging South Carolina artist and educator, Emma Barnes. In this exhibition, the artist implements a patchwork between home, memory, landscape, and material. The exhibition is on view at The Arts Center of Greenwood September 4 - October 3, 2026.
Patching explores repair as both a physical process and a metaphor for transformation. The exhibition features an eclectic collection of mixed media works; utilizing materials such as plaster, ink, latex, pigment, oil, watercolor, embossing, and printmaking across canvas, muslin, wood, and paper. Images of family and local landscapes intersect in tactile layers. The compositional choices fleet between deterioration and construction.
At its heart, Patching considers the imperfect experience of returning home, where familiarity can feel both comforting and unsettled. The works occupy the spaces between rupture and repair, inviting viewers to fill in what is unresolved and connect the imagery to their own memories. Patching becomes not simply an act of mending, but a meditation on growth, grace, and the possibility of reconstructing old fragments into something new.
Artist Biography Emma Barnes is a multi-disciplinary artist originally from Islandton, South Carolina. In 2014, she graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting & Printmaking and a double major in Gender Studies. In 2019 she attended Athena Standards, an art residency in Athens, Greece. In 2022, Barnes received a Master of Fine Arts in Painting, Drawing and Photography in the Alfred University international Düsseldorf program. She continues to produce and exhibit artwork around the country including MUSC Healing Arts Program, Redux Center for Contemporary Art, Art Fields, Emrose Projects, The Arts Center of Greenwood, Florida Mining Gallery, Michigan Medicine Gallery, Montgomery College Gallery in Maryland, Arts Southeast in Savannah, Artistry Gallery Greenville, and 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia. In her creative research she explores multiple materials including plaster, paint, and photography. She often navigates these mediums through the lens of low country landscapes, rural upbringing, and southern motifs. She has prior teaching experience as a painting adjunct and was formerly a high school art teacher. She currently serves as a Drawing & Painting Instructor at the University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB) in the Studio Art Program. |
