VIAN SORA Iraqi-American, b. 1976

Vian Sora's intensely autobiographical paintings are filled with emotional complexity and tension, bustling with a dynamic energy and struggle that reflect the artist's personal journey to move beyond the collective trauma of violence and destruction that she experienced firsthand during decades of conflicts in Iraq. Sora's painting process reflects this search for harmony and transcendence. While her canvases begin in a chaotic swirl of spray paint, acrylics and pigments covering the canvas, Sora wrests control creating specific forms and balance from the visual confusion. Though Sora's paintings are largely abstract, upon closer inspection, they reveal half-hidden figures and suggest landscapes of lush fertility and terrible decay, cycles of life and death, yet infused with hope. Sora uses painting to directly confront the pain of her past and reimagine the cultural richness of her ancient homeland on canvas.

Vian Sora (b. 1976, Baghdad, Iraq) has lived and worked in Louisville, Kentucky since 2009. She received a BS from Al Mansour University in Baghdad, Iraq in 2000 and studied printmaking at the Istanbul Museum of Graphic Art (IMOGA) in Istanbul, Turkey in 2007. Sora's work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally including the Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), Cincinnati, OH; Sharjah Biennale, Sharjah, UAE; IMOGA, Istanbul, Turkey; Japanese Foundation Culture Center, Ankara, Turkey; the Baghdad Art International Art Festival in Iraq; the KMAC Triennial, Louisville, KY; and Grinnell Museum of Art, Grinnell, IA., among others. Commencing in 2025, Sora will have a traveling solo museum show at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Speed Art Museum, and the Asia Society of Houston, Texas. 

Sora's work is included in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Dar El Cid Museum, Kuwait City, Kuwait; KMAC Museum, Louisville, KY; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; Grinnell College Museum of Art, Grinnell, IA; Ministry of Culture Contemporary Collection, Baghdad, Iraq; Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH; Fidelity Art Collection, Boston, MA, Shah Garg Foundation, New York, NY, as well as numerous private collections.