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The Unlearning Collective consists of Renée Bouchard, Julie Graves Krishnaswami, and Matthew Gernt. The Unlearning Collective was formed in 2020 by three recent MFA graduates from Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA). After reading Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism by Ariella Azoulay with our teacher, Professor Luis Jacob, we were inspired to integrate the concepts from the book into our daily lives and, specifically, our art-making practices. Potential History argues for the reexamination of historical events and milestones as well as museum and institutional collections using the conceptual frame of the camera’s shutter as a metaphor for the violence, silence, and erasure created by dominant systems.
Renée Bouchard explores and challenges ideas about painting and her role in its history as a woman. Born in 1976 to French Canadian parents, Renée Bouchard received her MFA in visual art from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2021. She also attended the Cleveland Institute of Art and began painting practice after graduating from the Maine College of Art in 1999. Renée Bouchard's work has been exhibited at the Lyman Allyn Museum, the Bennington Museum, the Vermont State House, and Southern Vermont College. Her paintings have also been included in shows at Big Town Gallery, Andrew Edlin Gallery, the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, UMass Amherst’s Herter Gallery, UMA’s Danforth Gallery, and MCLA’s Gallery 51. Bouchard was awarded grants from the Rauschenberg Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, and from the Vermont Arts Council. She has held residencies at the Cooper Union, the Kate Millett Artist Colony for Women, and the Vermont Studio Center. Her work has been reviewed in Art New England, the Folk Art Messenger, and her essay “Artist/Mother/Quarantine” was published in Isele Magazine. She lives with her nine-year-old child and dog in North Bennington, VT.
RENÉE BOUCHARD
Julie Graves Krishnaswami of Hamden, Connecticut, produces artist books, interventions, performances, works on paper, and textile/fiber-based materials. Drawing from feminist perspectives on history and critical theory, taking inspiration from conceptual art practices, Julie uses interdisciplinary research methods to guide her practice. Through interrogating her experiences as a woman, mother, lawyer, academic law librarian, and research professor, Julie aims to unpack norms and language around work and how it structures physical time, expectations, habits, and routines. Julie’s legal training frames her artistic practice resulting in subtly humorous but structural observations about contemporary and historical conditions of labor. She has exhibited her work at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, the Yale Health Plan, and Vermont College of Fine Arts, among others. Julie holds a BA from Reed College, a JD from CUNY School of Law, an MLIS from Pratt Institute, and an MFA from Visual Art from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Currently, she is a Law Librarian and Lecturer in Legal at the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale Law School.
JULIE GRAVES KRISHNASWAMI
Matthew Gernt is an artist based in Marseille, France. He works primarily in video, photography, and painting. As an artist, he is inspired by moving and still images and how they carry meaning and relate to various narration forms. He often focuses on themes of displacement, sensory aspects of life, and what it means to occupy space within a landscape. Currently, Matthew is a member of Fuite Atelier, an artist-run space in Marseille.
MATTHEW GERNT
