Assistant Professor Lola Panco, a painter and scholar whose work examines the environmental and emotional impact of social and political upheaval, has been recognized with two significant national honors. Panco received the Dedalus Foundation Alumni Grant from Dedalus Foundation Inc. in New York, and has been selected for a prestigious MASS MoCA Studios Artist Residency for March 2027 in North Adams, Massachusetts.
Born in Minsk, Belarus, Panco studied Academic Drawing and Painting at the Belarusian State Academy of Arts before moving to the United States in 2012. She earned her MFA from Arizona State University in 2024 and now serves as an Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at Appalachian State University.
Panco’s work investigates how instability reshapes our relationship with the natural world—transforming familiar landscapes into spaces of refuge, endurance, and survival. Through charged combinations of cityscapes, vegetation, and light, her paintings illuminate the fragile balance of ecosystems and the unseen forces that shape them.
Her practice has earned numerous accolades, including the Dedalus MFA Fellowship, Martin Wong Foundation Scholarship, and Gayle J. Novak and Robert D. Cocke Award in Painting. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Fine Art Connoisseur, and Metropolitan Magazine, and is held in private collections across the U.S. as well as in the permanent collections of Salisbury University and the Galbut Foundation.
For more on her upcoming residency, visit the MASS MoCA Studios announcement:
MASS MoCA Studios 2027 Fellows
*photo sourced from The Dedalus Foundation website
Lola Panco photo from The Dedalus Foundation
Lola Panco photo from The Dedalus Foundation