John Boone—WHATSWHAT at Lyman Allyn

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.

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Tues – Sat: 10 am – 5 pm
Sun: 1 – 5 pm

John Boone (American, born 1951), WHATSWHAT, 2019, Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.