John Guthrie’s paintings and drawings distill places in between and points of collision. The longtime Boston artist is a terrific colorist — one tone pings off the next and sparks a visual vibrato — so it’s often a surprise when he works in black and white.
Color or black and white, the vibrato is what matters: the pulsing hum that arises when he brings two unexpected things into proximity. The periwinkle blue, lime green, red, and gray in “Ascension” hit my eyes the way a chorus of sopranos singing syncopated music might hit my ears: offbeat, caffeinated. Guthrie’s “Black drawings” bring symbol, shape, and glyph together in awkward, lively forms.
[Cate McQuaid, Boston Globe, July 4, 2023]