Opening Reception for A Body of Work (MFA Thesis Exhibit)
125 A Herter Hall Union of M, Amherst, MA 01003
Herter Art Gallery is pleased to present A Body of Work, a thesis exhibition by MFA candidate Hayle Lovstedt, in the Department of Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
A Body of Work brings together two collections of ceramic vessels that use the artist’s body as both a conceptual anchor and as a standard unit of measure. Jointly, these works explore embodiment, material transformation, and the reciprocal relationship between hand, body, and clay in a process of making which honors both absence and presence. Through repetitive gestures and responsive making, A Body of Work examines how identity, physicality, and process coalesce in ceramics. The objects reflect a practice in which artist and clay engage in continuous negotiation—where material agency is not only acknowledged but embraced.
The reception will take place in Herter Gallery on Wednesday, April 23rd, from 4–6 PM, and the exhibition will be on view from April 22nd-29th.
Artist Bio:
Hayle Lovstedt is a ceramic artist from Southern California whose work focuses on form and function. Shifting between imposing form and responding to the materiality of clay, her practice illustrates embodied cognition; a site for the simultaneous emergence of knowledge and form in the space between her body and the clay.