Our 2023 summer show PERSONA was beautifully captured in the Boston Art Review (BAR). Poppy Livingstone writes, “There’s a democratic sense of balance in the intrigue and intimacy of the portraits and the ways in which they’re hung. Each subject felt like a friend you’d like to meet, and in a place like VERY, that just might be possible.”
Read the full article here: “Portraits and Perception: At Gallery VERY, Familiar Faces Line the Walls of PERSONA”.
VERY marks the end of 2021 with a poignant review of “Transfixed” featured in the Boston Globe. The article describes our three-person exhibition as “audacious” and “mesmerizing”, and can be accessed online here.
Tory Fair: Portable Window is on view at The Institute of Contemporary Art at the Maine College of Art (ICA MECA) from January 15 - February 28, 2021. Last June as part of VERY’s In The Studio series, Tory shared her experience creating “Portable Window,” spurred by an intergenerational dialogue between herself and renowned American sculptor, Mary Miss. Through multiple channels, including sculpture and photography, the piece frames and reframes one’s relationship to landscape and to the environment, both natural and political.
VERY’s In The Studio series scored a beautiful (and sizable!) spot in the Boston Globe as The Click It critics’ pick for visual art. The featured and full-color image that accompanies the write-up is by In The Studio artist, TenseOne. The feature also includes words on work by VERY and ITS artist, John Axon. Read what the Globe’s critics had to say below!
“IN THE STUDIO Since April, Very, the gallery run by painter John Guthrie, has been posting images, videos, and notes by artists about what they’re making now. It’s a vivid mix, from the angular tags of graffiti writer TenseOne on the walls of a former mental hospital to the digitally distorted images John Axon takes of his own body. There’s an intimacy to the artists’ revelation about process and the impact of working in these strange times.”
We are excited to announce that VERY was able to raise over $2,000 for Black Trans Femmes in the Arts Collective (BTFA). We are grateful to be able to contribute to BTFA Collective, and for the powerful showing of support from the VERY community. This is our first effort to actively support Black artists, and we plan to make our support of visual artists who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color a continuing part of our work in the art world.
“Moloney’s mystical sculptures aim to evoke a sense of fecund emptiness. His contemplative works — with titles such as ‘Turning,’ ‘Pausing,’ and ‘Rising’ — use light and reflective surfaces along with formal openings, voids, and vortexes to turn viewers’ attention inward.”
- “THE TICKET: WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE LOCAL ARTS WORLD” , published in the Boston Globe, May 9, 2019.
Photo by Stewart Clements
VERY is pleased to present Michael Alexander Guran, Max Hangs On, January 18-20
Book Release Party Friday, January 18, 6-10 pm
Read More“In fact, the space at Gallery VERY and the works by this group of artists illustrate the principle of quantum entanglements […] In a quantum entanglement, the parts of a system—no matter how far away they are from each other in the universe—are intrinsically linked, sharing observable physical properties. Just so, the works of Corby, Gallagher, Riley, and Weathersby are energized by and in dialogue with each other.”
- “ALONE TOGETHER.” by Jill Slosburg-Ackerman, published in Big, Red & Shiny, November 27, 2018
Photo by Stewart Clements
“These are contemplative works, fuzzy edged, sometimes almost still. The grid drew me in; the stripes made me uneasy. Why? The spinning creates a frequent shadow at the center, which fits into the grid like an origin point, but reads ominously against horizontal bands, like a featureless head or a black sun. The grid, meanwhile, beats open and closed as shadows fan from the center, as dusky tones warm and cool. It's a matrix for life's rhythms.”
- “Elaine Buckholtz’s presences on a wall” by Cate McQuaid, published in the Boston Globe May 2, 2018.
“What makes this installation most intriguing is not just its compelling material nature, but how the artists create a surprising sense of double entendre by offering the best of artistic artifice and the allure of the horror movie. The pretense of domesticity is cunningly reinforced by the gallery’s living room area alongside the installation’s homey references.”
- “A Missing Apparition at VERY” by Candice Smith Corby, published in Big, Red & Shiny, January 23, 2018
Photo by Stewart Clements
“Here, each paint chip and stripped screw is purposeful. The boxes are composed from the scrap wood of a year of jobs, cut into quarters and then assembled into boxes. One such box contains a bundle of old electrical cords and two spaces away a hand drill sits in its own little trophy case. The boxes mirror and rhyme with each other, creating a visual measure and tempo.”
- “Through Fresh Eyes: Doug Weathersby’s A Year In Review” by Lilly Saywitz, published in Big, Red & Shiny, March 8, 2017
Photo by Stewart Clements
“I called Weathersby early one morning recently to ask him to reflect on his work. Though he was already on a job, he kindly took some time to walk me through his transition from painting student to handyman-artist.”
- “Visual Arts Interview: Doug Weathersby — Making Art Out of Work” by Stace Brandt, published in The Arts Fuse, January 28, 2017.
"Think of John Guthrie's gallery as an art party..." - Cate McQuaid, Globe Correspondent
Topdo by Juliann Cydylo
Upon entry to Paperweight, the latest exhibition at VERY gallery in Boston’s South End, one perceives an absence: four works on paper occupy a modest amount of wall space along with a sculptural installation on the ground that does not exceed knee height…
Read More“[Fair] had cast a tree in a mixture of rubber, plaster, clay, wax, and foam and they stood erect in the middle of the studio. On our next visit, the trees were lying on the ground, a cast of a tree stump had been added, and we all agreed that the campfire motif provided a strong sense of place and a conceptual anchor for the show.”
“Paperweight: An Interview with Tory Fair”
Published October 17, 2016 by Big Red & Shiny
“The sculptures in VERY’s inaugural show, Sex Not Sex, inhabit the space in much the same way as the patrons at the opening: some sitting, some standing, others propped against the wall. In a gallery that feels more like a family room than a white cube, the work of Arthur Henderson does not simply provoke discussion but quietly joins the conversation.”
“Arthur Henderson: Sex Not Sex” - Published by Big Red & Shiny on August 2, 2016
Teapot by Arthur Henderson