“By any other name” (2021), carbonized mahogany, 27 x 2 inches. All images courtesy of TERN Gallery, shared with permission

In Splinters and Shards, artist John Beadle enriches the beauty of wood’s natural grain with a series of gouged dots, line carvings, and smooth, supple curves. His small, circular sculptures and vertical towers accentuate the texture and subtle gradients of carbonized mahogany through etched patterns that reveal the pristine reddish hue peeking through the charred surface. Always highlighting the potential of the raw material, Beadle, whose background is in painting and printmaking, evokes these mediums through layering dimension and motif in a single work and drawing on the subtraction inherent in carving into a blank woodblock.

Splinters and Shards is on view at the new TERN Gallery in Beadle’s hometown of Nassau, The Bahamas, from December 11, 2021, to January 22, 2022. Until then, check out the artist’s Instagram for a look at his process.

“Fruit & Texture one” (2021), carbonized mahogany, 28.5 x 2 inches

“Artifact II” (2020), carbonized mahogany and metal, 52.25 x 11.875 x 2 inches

“Fruit & Texture” (2021), carbonized mahogany, 27 x 2 inches

“Eclipse” (2021), carbonized mahogany, 52.75 x 2 inches

“Well Rooted” (2020), carbonized mahogany and metal, 69.5 x 7 x 2 inches

“What’s left behind” (2021), carbonized mahogany, 27 x 2 inches

“Before the chaos” (2021), carbonized mahogany, 27 x 2 inches

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