Episode 219

Photo Credit: Chad Crews

Ep.219 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 Baltimore Art Museum, Baltimore, MD; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), Cincinnati, OH; Sharjah Biennale, Sharjah, UAE; IMOGA, Istanbul, Turkey; as well as the KMAC Triennial, Louisville, KY; Grinnell Museum of Art, Grinnell, IA; among others. Commencing in 2025, Sora will have a travelling solo museum show at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and the Speed Art Museum.

Sora’s work is included in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; 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; the Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH; Fidelity Art Collection, Boston, MA; and the Shah Garg Foundation Collection, New York, NY; as well as numerous private collections.

Artist https://www.viansora.com/

David Nolan Gallery https://www.davidnolangallery.com/artists/vian-sora

Architectural Digest Middle East https://www.admiddleeast.com/story/vian-sora-the-iraqi-american-painter-explores-the-realities-of-displacement-and-being-a-refugee

Observer https://observer.com/2024/05/interview-artist-vian-sora-independent-new-york/

Vogue Arabia https://en.vogue.me/culture/iraqi-american-painter-vian-sora-debut-new-york/

The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/oct/23/vian-sora-exhibition-iraq-invasion

Artnet https://news.artnet.com/art-world/vian-sora-david-nolan-2395358

Arab News https://www.arabnews.com/node/2352756/lifestyle

Arab News https://www.arabnews.com/node/2239906/lifestyle

Cultbytes https://cultbytes.com/vian-soras-vibrant-paintings-shine-in-the-darkest-of-times/

UnderMain Magazine https://undermain.art/visual-arts/in-search-of-bodies-lost-surveying-the-internal-landscapes-of-vian-sora/

Hyperallergic https://hyperallergic.com/721172/joy-and-terror-coexist-in-vian-soras-unsettling-paintings/