John Boyer

John Boyer

March March 13 – May 8, 2021

Tierra Del Sol Gallery presents the work of John Boyer (1931-2005), who participated in the Studio Art program from 1993 until his passing. In the decade of work from the studio, Boyer brought his own intentions and expression to his practice and has left a rich legacy for viewers to engage and explore.

John Boyer was a prolific maker in a style similar to what has traditionally been labeled outsider artist. While we will never know the thinking behind his artistic impulses, we do know that his work with Tierra Del Sol exposed him to artist traditions, styles and materials that he deftly used to translate his ideas onto paper, sometimes working on found and recycled newsprint. His intuitive compositions reflect core themes including architecture, landscape and visionary figures from diverse religious and cultural influences. 

Boyer created colorful, structured drawings of houses, buildings and man-made landscapes populated with cars, boats and airplanes, all made with graphite and colored pencil that with repetitive strikes takes on a medium similar to oil pastel. He worked in a frenzied manner, but with purpose and forethought evidenced in his attention to the line and scale. His father was an architect, and this may have influenced his choice of subject matter.

There is a mysterious yet telling quality to Boyer’s artwork as if he was weighing symbols and meaning. In one drawing, Frankenstein’s monster appears next to a Dutch windmill; in another the same monster stands at the same scale as a large Tudor house next to it. The viewer is left to contemplate, and more importantly wonder at what Boyer so methodically and generously shared. 

Drawn to the stylized imagery of the World War II era, Boyer’s expressive language of saturated bold colors and outlined geometric shapes concentrated on early 20th European structures and vehicles. The finished works are reminiscent of the ordered universes of “outsider” artists Adolf Wölfli and Martín Ramírez. All three makers demonstrated a singular, compulsive devotion to symmetry, line and form and extracting the most from their simple materials.

The Gallery is celebrating Boyer’s treasure trove of two dimensional works and focusing his first solo exhibition on his architectural drawings. The exhibition opens March 13 and runs through May 8.