The Stuart B. and Barbara Padnos Distinguished Artist-In-Residence Chair for the Visual and Media Arts enhances the experiences of art students, both majors and non-majors, at Grand Valley State University. 

Stuart B. Padnos was a West Michigan community leader who impacted and changed the lives of many people through his contributions as a businessman, a philanthropist and a humanitarian. He served in the U.S. Army in Germany during World War II, was held as a prisoner of war, and awarded the Purple Heart with Oakleaf Cluster. After the war, Stuart joined his father’s Holland, Michigan scrap business, the Louis Padnos Iron and Metal Company, and married Barbara Jane Hermanson of Massachusetts. Barbara, who was a painter, encouraged Stuart to become a creative sculptor, transforming metal scrap into artworks such as the marching band sculpture found on the Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Allendale Campus. Barbara’s paintings are also on display in a variety of venues. In memory of Barbara, Stuart created and funded an endowed scholarship at GVSU to assist students who study abroad. To promote the teaching of art at GVSU, Stuart established the Padnos Distinguished Chair in 2005.

This endowed position gave GVSU the opportunity to create a legacy for future artists who practice and hone their skills in the Department of Visual and Media Arts. The Department is honored to have been the first unit on the GVSU campus to have an Endowed position.

Katya Grokhovsky is a Ukrainian-born, NYC-based artist, educator, and Founding Director of The Immigrant Artist Biennial. Grokhovsky's practice is deeply rooted in her autobiographical journey of migration and engages with the shared histories and collective memories of displaced communities. Grokhovsky is a recipient of numerous residencies and fellowships, such as The California Studio: Manetti Shrem Visiting Artist in Residence at UC Davis, Ekard Artist in Residence at Bucknell University, Windgate Artist in Residence at UAFS (University of Arkansas Fort Smith), The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Studio Program, Stove Works AIR, Sculpture Space AIR, School of Visual Arts MFA Art Practice Artist in Residence, Pratt Fine Arts Artist in Residence, The Museum of Arts and Design Studios Program Residency, Muhlenberg College Visiting Artist in Residence, BRICworkspace Residency, Ox-BOW School of Art Residency, Wassaic Artist Residency, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Studios at MASS MoCA, Santa Fe Art Institute Residency, Watermill Center Residency, and more.

She has been awarded the Brooklyn Arts Council Grants, FST StudioProjects Fund, New American Fellowship, ArtSlant Prize, Dame Joan Sutherland Fund, Australia Council for the Arts ArtStart Grant, NYFA Mentoring Program for Immigrant Artists, Freedman Traveling Scholarship for Emerging Artists and others. Her work has been exhibited in venues such as Brooklyn Museum, Ceysson & Bénétière Gallery, Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, NADA East Broadway, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Smack Mellon, MAD Museum, Queens Museum, Artists' Television Access, Tiger Strikes Asteroid NYC, BRIC Biennial, FLUX Factory, Eastern Connecticut State University, Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, EFA Project Space, Hudson Valley MOCA, HERE Arts Center, Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, SUNY College among others. Grokhovsky has taught courses at SVA, University of California, Davis, CUNY City College and more. Grokhovsky holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a BFA from Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University, Australia and a BA (Honors) in Fashion from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia.

To learn more about Katya's work visit her website here or read her feature in a GV Next article here

Katya Grokhovsky, Bad Woman, 2024, photo Jeffrey Burrell

Katya Grokhovsky, Is There a Place?, 2024, photo Alex Dotulong

Katya Grokhovsky, Between Earth and Sky, 2024, photo Bea Augustin

Katya Grokhovsky Welcome Event

Pere Marquette Room, Kirkhoff Center

Wednesday, October 9

2:00-3:00pm Artist Lecture

This event celebrates Katya Grokhovsky's arrival as the 2024-2025 Padnos Artist in Residence. During this public event, Katya will share images of her artwork and discuss what motivates her artistic practice. She will also share her anticipated trajectory during her time here at Grand Valley State University in residence. Public welcome & free refreshments provided to follow the lecture until 4pm.

Image credit (left): Katya Grokhovsky, Fantasyland, 2021, photo Walter Wlodarczyk

Kate Levy (2023-2024 )

Kate Levy (b. 1984, Royal Oak, Michigan) is a filmmaker and multimedia artist. Drawing on investigative and historical research and collaborations with community organizers, her documentary films, installations, sculptures, texts, and photography series interrogate power structures, cultural narratives and the relationship between the everyday and the catastrophic. She has worked on projects related to water, education, police violence, immigration and environmental and economic justice.

Kate has exhibited her award-winning film, photography and installation work at film festivals, galleries and museums across the US.  In 2015, her work with the ACLU of Michigan helped expose the Flint Water Crisis.  She was a 2017 Patagonia Works grant recipient for her feature film about water access across the US and a 2018 MacDowell fellow. From 2019-2021, Kate served as the Co-Director of the Youth Documentary Workshop at Educational Video Center.

As a director, cinematographer and editor, Kate also works with clients, primarily non-profits, media outlets and other independent filmmakers to create meaningful, community-driven, journalistic video and multimedia storytelling projects. 

You can view Kate's documentaries and learn more about her work here.

Sean J Patrick Carney (2020 -2023 )

Sean J Patrick Carney is an artist and writer in Berkeley, California. A frequent contributor to Art in America, he recently received an Arts Writers Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in partnership with Creative Capital. Since 2009, he has operated Social Malpractice Publishing, an independent distribution imprint that has produced over fifty original editions for artists, writers, and comedians. His podcast on contemporary art and comedy, Humor and the Abject, received a Net Art Grant from Rhizome and a creators residency at Kickstarter. Previously, he was a member of anonymous New York art collective The Bruce High Quality Foundation, and served as co-director and faculty at BHQFU, the collective's tuition-free, experimental art school. As part of the paranormal research team GWC, Investigators, he has participated in High Desert Test Sites and received funding from the Oregon Arts Commission, the Precipice Fund, and the Regional Arts & Culture Council. Carney has exhibited and performed his work nationally and internationally at venues including MOCA Los Angeles; MoMA PS1, New York; Showroom MAMA, Rotterdam; Interstate Projects, Brooklyn; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; NADA Miami Beach; the Banff Centre, Alberta; and the Blanton Museum of Art, Austin. He has taught courses at New York University, the Virginia Commonwealth University, Pacific Northwest College of Art, the University of Texas at Austin, the Museum of Modern Art, and Dia:Beacon. Currently, Carney is the Padnos Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. 

You can visit Sean J Patrick Carney's website here.

Melanie Daniel (2017– 2020)

Melanie Daniel was born in Victoria, British Columbia, and is based in Tel Aviv. She is represented by the Asya Geisberg Gallery, NY, and Chelouche Gallery, Tel Aviv, and Galerie des Tuiliers, Lyon, France. Her work has been widely exhibited internationally, with solo exhibitions at the Asya Geisberg Gallery, NY, Chelouche Gallery, Tel Aviv, Kelowna Art Gallery, British Columbia, Angelika Knapper Gallery, Stockholm, and group exhibitions at the Israel Museum of Art, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Petach Tikva Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2012, she received the Pollock-Krasner Grant and a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, and was a NARS Foundation Resident. In 2009 Daniel was awarded a solo exhibition for the Tel Aviv Museum of Art's Rappaport Prize for a Young Israeli Artist. Her work has been reviewed by The Huffington Post, CBC/Radio Canada, Frieze Magazine, and Newsweek.

You can visit Melanie Daniel's website here.

Nayda Collazo-Llorens (2014–2017)

Nayda Collazo-Llorens, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a visual artist engaged in a multi-disciplinary practice that includes drawing, printed matter, installation work, video, and text-based work, among others. Incorporating multiple mediums and strategies, she examines the way in which we perceive and process information, dealing with concepts of navigation, memory, language, hyperconnectivity and noise. Her work has been exhibited at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, Richmond Center for Visual Arts in Kalamazoo, Museo Universitario del Chopo in Mexico City, The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, El Museo del Barrio in New York City, Art Museum of the Americas in Washington DC, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Juan, Puerto Rico, among other national and international institutions. Her work was included in the 3rd San Juan Poly/Graphic Triennial in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the 9th Havana Biennial in Havana, Cuba, and the 12th International Media Art Biennale in Wroclaw, Poland. Collazo-Llorens received an MFA from New York University and a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She was a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellow in 2012, and a Visiting Fellow at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership in 2014. Her work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Art Net, Art US, Art Nexus, Art News, Arte al Día International, BOMBLOG, and Newcity, among others.  Her work is represented by LMAKgallery, New York.

You can visit Nayda Collazo-Lloren's website here. 

Steven Sorman (2007–2010)

The first holder of the position was Professor Steven Sorman. He was selected through a national search process for an appointment in the department that began in 2007 and lasted through the winter of 2010. Steven, a printmaker, created a remarkable body of new work, and also designed and built a hand papermaking facility in the department. Additionally, he strengthened the practice of cross collaboration between departments by twice offering a course titled "Word and Image to Book," team-taught with Professor Patricia Clark from the Writing Department. He also team-taught painting courses with Associate Professor Jill Eggers, together taking students on field trips with the internationally recognized author and Michigan native, Jim Harrison, whose papers are entrusted to the Grand Valley’s archives. Steven’s work was exhibited at the Grand Rapids Art Museum and the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art while he occupied the position. As a lasting legacy to GVSU, Steven donated 30 of his prints to the GVSU Art Collection.

You can see more of Stephen Sorman's work here.