> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Unearthed Wood Carvings of a Part-Time Gravedigger - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/john-byam-at-andrew-edlin-gallery/ - Published: 2017-01-26T13:55:55.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T15:57:19.000Z - Description: Andrew Edlin Gallery is exhibiting the wood carvings of the late John Byam, a self-taught artist who transformed his daydreams into sculpture. - Author: Allison Meier - Tags: Art, Andrew Edlin gallery, Outsider Art, Review, Sculpture, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:23 (2016, 2017, part 2) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/01/johnbyam11.jpg) Installation view of John Byam’s work at Andrew Edlin Gallery (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic) Dusted with sawdust, [John Byam’s](http://www.edlingallery.com/artist/john-byam?ref=hyperallergic.com) sculptures appear as if they’ve just been carved, the shavings attached with glue binder giving a rawness to the miniature spacecrafts, airplanes, houses, helicopters, cameras, and coffins. Andrew Edlin Gallery in Manhattan is displaying an assembly of these pocket-sized pieces by the late Byam in [*Unearthed*](http://www.edlingallery.com/exhibition/unearthed?ref=hyperallergic.com#&panel1-1). Byam passed away[ in 2013](https://www.artforum.com/news/id=40688?ref=hyperallergic.com), just after his first public exhibitions in 2012 [at SUNY Oneonta](http://www.thedailystar.com/news/local%5Fnews/on-the-bright-side-suny-oneonta-to-display-local-artist/article%5Fbbb7f7f8-d9ad-534d-b58b-b7ddab93b489.html?ref=hyperallergic.com), followed by a two-person show at [Parker’s Box.](http://www.parkersbox.com/exhibitions/past/2012/Facetime3.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) Andrew Edlin Gallery gave him his debut New York solo show in February 2013 before his death that March, although [according to the gallery](http://www.edlingallery.com/exhibition%5Fpr/unearthed?ref=hyperallergic.com) he was too sick to attend. *Unearthed* thus echoes the recent discovery of his work, as well as one of his jobs as a part-time gravedigger. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/01/johnbyam03.jpg) Installation view of John Byam’s work at Andrew Edlin Gallery Born in 1929 in Oneonta, New York, Byam mostly lived a local life, working at his family’s trailer court, with a two-year stint in the military taking him to Japan during the Korean War. Later, he had odd jobs with the Delaware and Hudson Railway and as a gravedigger at the local cemetery. The wood carvings, arranged by theme at Andrew Edlin with no label text, have traces of this autobiographical narrative, with a platoon of tanks and heavy artillery, or an open coffin, colored black, on a rolling gurney. Yet others, like spaceships and rockets, one with “Moon or Bust” scrawled in red, herald dreams of exploration. Recognizable pop culture forms, including the U.S.S. Enterprise from *Star Trek,* suggest these ambitions were limited to vicarious experiences through television, magazines, and movies. While that gives the toy-like objects a melancholy edge, they have a lot of joy in their detailed shapes. Byam seemed to delight in making even a simple chair on such a small-scale, with annotations in pencil indicating details like “door front” on a tiny house. An array of human hands chiseled into various poses, one holding a coin, another with the words “2 close hands” folded in prayer, shows a similar enchantment with the shape of things. With self-taught artists like Byam, who worked in rural obscurity and was discovered late in life, it’s easy to make their creations more about a novel story than their skill. Byam was a deft craftsman in the tradition of American vernacular woodcarving, and his roughly hewn art is haunted by 20th-century culture, both its wars and fantasies. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/01/johnbyam05.jpg) Installation view of John Byam’s work at Andrew Edlin Gallery ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/01/johnbyam06.jpg) Installation view of John Byam’s work at Andrew Edlin Gallery ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/01/johnbyam07.jpg) Installation view of John Byam’s work at Andrew Edlin Gallery ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/01/johnbyam08.jpg) Installation view of John Byam’s work at Andrew Edlin Gallery ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/01/johnbyam09.jpg) Installation view of John Byam’s work at Andrew Edlin Gallery ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/01/johnbyam10.jpg) Installation view of John Byam’s work at Andrew Edlin Gallery ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/01/johnbyam13.jpg) Installation view of John Byam’s work at Andrew Edlin Gallery ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/01/johnbyam14.jpg) Installation view of John Byam’s work at Andrew Edlin Gallery ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/01/johnbyam17.jpg) Installation view of John Byam’s work at Andrew Edlin Gallery [John Byam: Unearthed](http://www.edlingallery.com/exhibition/unearthed?ref=hyperallergic.com#&panel1-1) *continues at Andrew Edlin Gallery (212 Bowery, Nolita, Manhattan) through February 26\.*