By: Staff Writer
December 14, 2021
Legendary artist and sculptor has his first ever showing at the Bahamian TERN Gallery starting last week and is relieved to finally be involved with his first ever exclusive viewing.
John Beadle, showcasing his latest works in his Splinters and Shards Solo exhibition at the TERN Gallery, told Caribbean Magazine Plus that he is “relieved” to be having this showing at the gallery. “I’ve been working on these for two years and I was just telling Lauren and Jodie that I have never seen them in this clean of a place. I’m seeing some different things in my own work as a result of this space.”
Lauren Holowesko-Perez is the TERN Gallery director and Jodie Minnis is the Gallery manager, both have worked tirelessly to bring John to the point of having a full viewing of his work, something he very rarely does if ever.
This showing has 19 distinct pieces of sculpted work that John was motivated to create because he just wanted to.
Responding to what motivates him to create, he said: “It depends on how I feel. Because I’ve been doing this for a while, there’s a culmination of all the materials and techniques and ways of doing things, but the creative process chronologically took two months.”
Mr Beadle added: “I start with sketches, sometimes and sometimes that sketch leads to a second one. Like I’ll do a design or have a motiff going in one piece.
“I try not to work on one at a time, I try to work on multiple ones. So I have a motif going in one and put another design or texture on the side of it and recognize something else would look good.
“Rather than trying to put everything or all my ideas in one, I get to the next one, and then keep on going to the next and then I orchestrate all of them by the same method.”
Considering that John very rarely does showings, he said this time he wanted to “get out of his studio” and see people “enjoying his work.” He added: “This year, last year and the year before last are non-years. This is the first showing I’m having this year, I don’t know how many I will have next year.
“I didn’t have this one scheduled, because to tell you the truth, I had no idea of showing this work. People come to my studio and buy it and I invite people to my studio and if they want it they can purchase it from my studio. But as far as a formal showing, I never had that in mind. Not that I didn’t want one, but I never had that in mind.”
Splinters and Shards will be showing from December 11, 2021 through to January 22, 2022 at the TERN.
Splinters and Shards marks Beadle’s first exhibition with TERN. In this new body of work, Beadle combines natural and manufactured materials to create pieces that reference and warp their original forms. Beadle, who trained as a painter and printmaker, applies a similar attitude toward materiality in these sculptures. These new works are examples of Beadle’s ability to merge painting, sculpture and installation, creating a rich sense of line, dimension and texture.
Beadle’s carbonized mahogany carvings fuse a variety of natural wood textures into single compositions. In his circular wall sculptures, round indentations, thinly etched lines and curving hollows mimic the various textures found naturally in wood, allowing these different patterns to blend into one another.
These natural patterns are echoed in the grain of the wood itself, which remains a prominent feature of these pieces despite the carbonization of the wood. The artist contrasts his circular carvings with two freestanding, upright wooden sculptures. The natural shape of the tree is referenced in these rectangular pieces, continuing the motifs of naturalistic linework and engravings.
Beadle sees all of his wood carvings as a kind of drawing—except that instead of adding onto the existing material, these carvings require him to subtract from it, as one would do to a wood block for printmaking.
