WEATHER ALERT: GVSU will move to REMOTE STATUS for Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. Classes shift to remote.
Stuart B. and Barbara H. Padnos Student Gallery
The Stuart B. and Barbara H. Padnos Student Gallery is a unique venue on the Grand Valley State University Allendale Campus. Its primary function is to offer students opportunities to organize, execute, install and host exhibitions. In the recent past, students have organized, and installed various exhibitions and events for a variety of audiences. The Gallery space is regularly programmed with BFA thesis shows, exhibitions and showcased projects from individual classes. The Padnos Student Gallery also hosts the Guest Artist Program, providing learning opportunities for Students, Faculty & Staff with professional artists outside of a classroom context.
Experience the Padnos Student Gallery Exhibitions
Visit the Stuart B. and Barbara H. Padnos Art & Design Student Gallery to experience the works on display this semester. The Gallery is located on the Lower Level of Calder Art Center, there are both stairs and an elevator for visitor access.
Guest Artist Program
Through the Stuart B. & Barbara H. Padnos Student Gallery Guest Artist Program within the Department of Visual & Media Arts, Students, Faculty & Staff are directly connected with professional artists. The program has included workshops, lectures, gallery visits and primarily a week-long campus visit by the Guest Artist as they install an exhibition of their artwork. These learning opportunities operate alongside but outside the classroom, and the reach of these opportunities intentionally extends outward beyond the university making connections within the state and region. All exhibitions are also open to the public.
Emmy Bright Guest Artist 2024
The Padnos Student Gallery hosted
Guest Artist Emmy Bright
January 8th-12th, 2024
Her works across drawing, writing, print and performance. She loves paper, wool and the material that Carhartt pants are made of. Across all of these materials, Bright’s work investigates the problem of empathy and the problem of boundaries asking – How do we be there for each other? For ourselves? And where is this “there” we’re all talking about? She looks to psychology, art history and comedy for help and also uses lots of lists and diagrams.
Claire Ashley Guest Artist 2023
The Padnos Student Gallery hosted
Guest Artist Claire Ashley
January 12th- February 2nd, 2023
"I work with inflatable sculpture as the surface for painting to live and breathe, becoming a tattooed skin of sorts on a kind of hybrid body. These sculptural paintings also become performance costume and once kinetic, lumber through the landscape on twelve sets of legs. I find the inflatable form compelling, as it exists in two states - both as flaccid skin and taught volume - metaphors for our bodily processes: inhaling/exhaling; taught/wrinkled skin; flaccid/erect organs etc.
As a feminist artist I am trying to take up as much space as possible and be as loud and obnoxious as I can in the world. I want to compete with the macho male sculptors of art history, but in a way that is soft, squishy, and playful rather than hard, severe, and unforgiving."
Student Exhibitions
Students & Faculty regularly host exhibitions throughout the year focusing on coursework & student thesis projects.
Other Campus Galleries
Grand Valley State University Art Museum
The GVSU Art Museum organizes and maintains an active exhibition schedule in six different gallery spaces across two campuses. In addition, it is the venue for several BFA thesis shows every semester. The gallery staff also oversees GVSU's extensive art collection which includes over 5000 works. It features a wide range of media by nationally and internationally recognized artists, faculty, alumni, and many Michigan-based visual artists. These are on view in buildings throughout the Allendale, Grand Rapids, Holland, Muskegon, and Traverse City campuses.
Grand Valley State University Art Gallery
https://www.gvsu.edu/artgallery/
Portal Spaces
In addition to formal galleries, the Department of Visual and Media Arts includes other areas to showcase student work. Faculty use these spaces, on a rotating basis, to display projects from a single class or to highlight student portfolios.
Gallery Director Information
For questions about Gallery Exhibitions, please contact:
Curator of Visual Resources Dulcee Boehm
Gallery Director
Calder Arts Center
(616) 331-3486
[email protected]