Opening Reception: Friday, August 22, 5-7 PM
Corrine Yonce | Exhibition Statement Longing is Just Our Word for Knowing is a series of fragmented, figurative works that explore the concept of home within the framework of bioregionalism. Bioregionalism emphasizes the importance of sustainability and equity in organizing political, cultural, and economic systems around naturally defined areas. This project aims to highlight the unique visual iconography of the bioregions where she lives and works, drawing attention to the cultural connections present in both urban and natural landscapes.
Referencing Bahar Orang’s “Where Things Touch,” this project utilizes images, storytelling, and public art to illustrate the personal nuances and complexities of how we each perceive home. This iteration of the series examines how recent natural and man-made disasters have resulted in displacement and dislocation. For instance, in July of 2023 and 2024, Vermont, which was designated a “climate haven” in 2022, experienced significant flooding. While people in Vermont associate these floods with the Winooski, Connecticut, and Brown Rivers, residents of Florida cannot forget the rising waters caused by Hurricanes Irma and Michael. Our relationship with home spaces and the objects within them is highlighted as we witness neighbors piling their personal belongings on sidewalks and yards, a reality that affects both city dwellers and rural residents alike.
The artworks in this series are based on observational drawings that capture intimate, closely cropped gestures between individuals in public—yet “homey”—spaces. These moments, whether shared among friends, family, or strangers, serve as vignettes of daily life in Burlington’s Old North End, along King Street, along the Winooski River, and other project sites. I use acrylic and oil paints along with materials gathered on-site and from everyday life, such as flip-flops from the recently receded banks of the Winooski, remnants from a sudden neighbor eviction, and the detritus of my past collected in the singles sock drawer. I translate these drawings into paintings that reflect the activities and interactions occurring in the underutilized public spaces they occupy.
Corrine Yonce | Biography Corrine Yonce is an artist, affordable & fair housing advocate, documentarian, and communications professional based in Winooski, Vermont. With a focus on home and community, her work blends visual art with ethnographic media, such as audio interviews, household objects, and photographs. Yonce founded Voices of Home, a seven-year project that explores residents’ experiences of home through interviews and art installations, showcased at venues including the Chandler Center for the Arts and Fletcher Free Library, and now managed by the Vermont Folklife Center. Her public art background includes collaborative projects like a large-scale mosaic in Brattleboro’s Pliny Park, created in partnership with Mary Lacy, which engaged the community through “smash parties” and collective storytelling. Yonce’s exhibition history includes solo shows at AVA Gallery and Art Center and SoapBox Arts (Burlington, VT); group exhibitions at Collarworks (Troy, NY), Gallery 263 (Boston, MA), and The Painting Center (NYC), and spans venues internationally and cities across the US. Yonce has been included in publications including New American Paintings and Friend of an Artist. Yonce received the 2025 Diane Gabriel Visual Artist Award from Burlington City Arts. She earned her MFA in 2023 at the Maryland Institute College of Art as a Leslie King Hammond Fellow and an Interdisciplinary Master of Education at the University of Vermont. At Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, Yonce facilitates workshops and events while coordinating communications for their ten anti-poverty programs.
Corrine Yonce | Artist Statement The instinct to hold onto objects, photographs, and journals is rooted in Corrine Yonce’s experience with housing insecurity. Home does not have a fixed or universal meaning; it extends beyond the confines of brick and mortar. The concept of home is influenced by her personal experiences, community projects, and her work as a housing advocate.
Painting addresses her desire to re-materialize personal histories that have been lost over time, and serves as a record, capturing the tension between the present and memories. Through a combination of assemblage and painting, Yonce seeks to understand the remnants of home that have shaped her experience. She utilizes deconstruction, combining, and displaying works in ways that may initially seem incongruous. By merging art with audio, household objects, and printed photographs, she creates a space that embodies the body, comfort, and tactile connection.
The resulting assemblage of fragmented memories and materials forms an imperfect narrative of her experience of home: close, specific, and familiar, yet often disrupted and falling apart. Her embedded paintings incorporate discarded pillow insulation and are supported by second-hand shelves, coat hooks, epoxied toys, rock collections, and bits of carpet. Within these works, one can find broken, torn, and buried souvenirs—found but familiar household items presented with humor, reverence, and a touch of shame. These paintings symbolize a place she can no longer visit. Home, which exists in what remains—in both material and memory—rather than in the structure of the shelter itself.
To view images of artwork in Corrine Yonce’s exhibition, click here
