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The Edwin C. Gentzler Translation Center will celebrate International Translation Day with an opening reception for “Memory and Hybridity in Diasporic Spaces,” an exhibition by UMass graduate student Bo Kim, on Tuesday, Sept. 30, from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in Herter 17. The opening will include refreshments and a conversation with the artist about the work on view.

The exhibition, on view until Jan. 30, explores the art of translating a personal archive through drawing, painting, photography and archival materials, employing traditional Korean artistic techniques alongside contemporary approaches to investigate how memory and hybridity shape cultural identity. 

Kim’s work reflects on the fragmented and fluid experience of diasporic existence, interrogating the tensions between place, belonging, and cultural inheritance. By layering personal and collective histories, the exhibition illuminates the duality of being caught between cultures while seeking connection and continuity.

A current M.F.A. candidate in Studio Arts at UMass Amherst, Kim is an artist and educator whose practice examines memory, displacement and hybridity through embodied forms of drawing and painting. Born in Busan, South Korea, 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 and the Sejong Center in Seoul, among many more.

Kim was also the recipient of the 2025 Distinguished Teaching Award at the Master’s and Education Specialist Commencement ceremony in May.