Taxonomies of the Ordinary
Open Door Gallery
September 8, 2025–December 1, 2025
In this two-person exhibition, artists Bo Kim and Hayle Lovstedt explore themes of perception, relationship, and vulnerability in artwork that is interconnected yet aesthetically different.
Bo Kim’s paintings of ornithological specimens merge the precision of a scientist with the sensitivity of an artist. By re-presenting natural science collections through a careful and observant lens, Kim highlights the artist’s role as both interpreter and advocate for social and environmental awareness. Her work challenges conventional systems of categorization and perception, encouraging viewers to reconsider the assumptions that shape our understanding of nature and one another. Lovstedt’s “hostile” and “inconvenient” objects confront us with their subversion of functionality in their everyday uses. A serving bowl with spikes or a multi-handled mug gives us pause and invites us to make space for the unspoken tension that may be present at the dinner table.
Together, these disparate bodies of work begin a larger interwoven conversation about the everyday and how false perceptions can embed trauma. What are the implications of our disregard? Who decides what’s worthy of attention and why does their voice carry such weight? How can we begin to shift our perspective? When are we allowed to take up space—and when do we simply take it?
About the artists
Bo Kim was born in Busan, South Korea. She earned her BFA in Painting from Dongduk Women’s University and an MFA in Oriental Painting from Hongik University in Seoul. She later received an MA in Art Therapy and Counseling from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), and she is currently pursuing an MFA in Studio Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she teaches painting and drawing courses. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Washington, D.C.; the Korean Cultural Center in New York; the Asian Arts & Culture Center at Towson University; the Sejong Center in Seoul; the Katzen Art Center Gallery at American University Museum in Washington, D.C.; Unison Arts in New Paltz, NY; and the CAFA Art Museum in Beijing. Kim has participated in residencies at Ox-Bow, the I-Park Foundation, MASS MoCA, and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and she will attend the Vermont Studio Center Residency in 2026.
Hayle Lovstedt is a ceramic artist from Southern California whose work explores the relationship between form, function, and bodily experience. Rooted in Material Engagement Theory and the idea that clay is an active collaborator, her practice typically centers on how ceramic forms become enmeshed in our lives—quietly supporting us through gesture, utility, and daily use. Her vessels often offer comfort, familiarity, and a sense of serenity. With this body of work, however, she subverts those values, focusing instead on how objects can resist, disrupt, or refuse ease. These hostile and inconvenient forms challenge assumptions about function and hospitality, positioning ceramic form as a site of conceptual and physical negotiation. Lovstedt holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and currently lives and works in Western Massachusetts.