May 3 – August 10, 2025
Attuned to idioms and their layers of meaning, artist John Boone (American, born 1951) explores the complexity of language in his word-based paintings. At once playful and serious, Boone engages the viewer with familiar phrases, initiating a conversation and inviting the viewer to imagine what comes next.
WHATSWHAT features a selection of more than 50 of Boone’s paintings from 1994 to the present, with several groupings that explore a key word with a rich range of associations. “Time – Pieces” is one such series, while “Hands” is another, each comprised of canvases at the same scale that pivot around these words, including “It’s out of my hands” and “on one hand…”. By isolating and connecting certain words, metaphors, and aphorisms, Boone considers how notions such as time and the physicality of our bodies are deeply woven into the English language.
John Boone (American, born 1951), WHATSWHAT, 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
John Boone (American, born 1951), Time Pieces – How Time Flies, 1995, Gouache on paper, 26 x 28 inches. Image courtesy of the artist; John Boone (American, born 1951), Hands – Its Out of My Hands, 2018, Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
Boone’s words are meticulously hand-painted, using a signature typeface of his own design that resembles the digitized text of an electronic marquee. At a time when much of the imagery and text around us is computer-generated and mediated by screens, Boone’s carefully crafted paintings challenge us to think about language, technology, advertising, and how we communicate with one another. He favors language that is familiar, isolating idioms and phrases that are widely used, known to everyone, and that have no known author.
Based in Brooklyn, NY and Stonington, CT, John Boone has long explored text-based art in his studio practice. Boone’s work has been shown at many museums and galleries, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Recent solo exhibitions include the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ, and the Mystic Museum of Art. Boone’s work is held in a variety of public and private collections, with commissions that include a sign flown over Berlin, a street mural in Prague, eight murals laser-etched in glass for the Hudson Bergen Light Rail in Jersey City, and a granite compass at the Key West Botanical Garden.
Opening Reception
Friday, May 2 • 5 – 7 PM
Members Free • Non-members $10
RSVP to 860.443.2545 or [email protected].