"Boom!" go the binaries
John Guthrie uses abstraction to shake up hoary expectations about what we see
Do you see the caduceus in “Caduceus”?
John Guthrie’s paintings have always had a riddling nature. There are elements of optical illusion, formal tricks, and a canny orchestration of color that feels like he is speaking directly to the retina, bypassing the brain for the optic nerve like a stranger leaning across you to flirt with your partner at a party. His show “Evolution” at RSM Art Gallery at Bentley University Library holds all that mystery and spark, and puts it in the context of Queer Abstraction – a movement in which artists use abstraction to explode binaries. Aha! Here’s my Boston Globe review.