Born in New York City to Greek parents from Kastoria, Boutis grew up in Chelsea and studied painting at Cooper Union, graduating in 1948. He later received a scholarship to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and was awarded two consecutive Fulbright grants to study in Italy (1955–57). In recognition of his artistic impact, Cooper Union inducted him into The Golden Legion fifty years after his graduation.

Active in the New York art scene from the early 1950s, Boutis was closely associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement centered around the East 10th Street artist-run galleries. He co-founded the Area Gallery on East 10th Street and later helped found and run the Landmark Gallery in SoHo during the 1970s, creating vital exhibition spaces for emerging and established artists alike. His work was widely exhibited and reviewed, including frequent coverage in The New York Times, Arts Magazine, and Art Digest. Critics praised his work for its quiet intensity, structural sensitivity, and “inward, mysterious and poetic” use of color.

Boutis was elected to the National Academy and received numerous honors, including a Rockefeller Foundation residency in Bellagio, Italy, awards from the New York State Council on the Arts for his monotypes, and a Mark Rothko Foundation award. A lifelong jazz enthusiast, he often titled his paintings after jazz standards, infusing his work with rhythm and improvisation.

His work is included in many public museum collections, including Art Institute of Chicago, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the National Academy of Design, the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, among others.