Photography exhibition at LCCC explores reminiscence, loss and what endures – LCCC

20
OCT

October 20, 2025

CHEYENNE, Wyoming – Family images reworked by bodily manipulation will
function reflections on grief and remembrance in an upcoming pictures exhibition
at Laramie County Community College.

What Lies Beyond, an exhibition by artist and educator Justin A. Carney, will likely be on
show Nov. 2–Dec. 12 within the Esther and John Clay Fine Art Gallery on LCCC’s Cheyenne
campus. The gallery is open 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday–Friday. A reception with the artist
is about for 10–11:15 a.m. Nov. 19 within the gallery and adjoining foyer, adopted by an
artist speak from 11:15 a.m.–midday within the Surbrugg/Prentice Auditorium. Admission to
the gallery, reception and artist speak is free and open to the general public.

The exhibition options two complementary our bodies of labor that talk to 1 one other.
The first,  “and the disappearing has become” imagines a future wherein the remaining
of Carney’s household has handed, whereas “Because I Live” displays on his reminiscences and
feelings surrounding his grandmother’s demise. Both sequence use pictures and combined
media to depict the delicate strategy of remembering and forgetting. Through sanding,
erasure and layering, Carney transforms household images into textured abstractions
that make seen the way in which love and reminiscence endure past bodily presence.

Carney mentioned the work grew from fears of future loss and the belief of how reminiscences
fade with time.

“After my grandmother handed, all the pieces modified — my household, my relationships, how
I relate to the world,” he mentioned. “There was this worry that at some point I’d neglect her
face, her voice and even the way it felt to be close to her. I began making work that attempted
to visualise that strategy of forgetting; one thing we don’t discover till we attempt to
keep in mind and may’t.”

Fragments of faces, furnishings and family objects stay seen inside lots of
the manipulated photographs. Carney mentioned these surviving particulars remind viewers that even
as folks and moments fade, their affect persists.

“Even after we can’t recall each element, the individuals who liked us are nonetheless a part of
who we’re,” he mentioned. “They never actually disappear. They stay with us.”

By sharing his personal experiences of grief, Carney hopes others discover connection by
the work.

“Often after we lose somebody, we maintain that ache inside and suppose we’re the one ones
feeling it,” he mentioned. “I need folks to see this work and notice they’re not alone.
When guests share their very own tales after seeing these items, which means the artwork
has performed its job.”

Exhibiting at a school campus provides one other layer of that means for the artist, who teaches
pictures at Colorado State University. “As a instructor, I all the time need college students to
see that their lives and experiences are worthy topics for artwork,” Carney mentioned. “If
folks can be taught and develop from what I do, that’s extremely significant. This present
is a chance to start out these conversations.”

Carney is initially from Baltimore, Maryland. He holds an MFA in Studio Art with
a focus in Photography from Indiana University Bloomington and a BFA in Photography
from Pennsylvania College of Art & Design. His work has been exhibited nationally
and internationally, incomes recognition such because the Beckmann Emerging Artist Fellowship
from the Indy Arts Council and the First Place Single Image Award from the LensCulture
Art Photography Awards.