Vian Sora: End of Hostilities
26 October – 9 December 2023
David Nolan Gallery
24 East 81 Street, New York

Following recent acquisitions by the Baltimore Museum of Art and others, the Iraqi-American painter Vian Sora (b. 1976, Baghdad; based in Louisville, Kentucky since 2009) will present her first New York solo exhibition, on view October 26 through December 9 at David Nolan Gallery (24 East 81 Street, a block from the Met).

Vian Sora: End of Hostilities consists of new work that furthers her practice’s abstract, gestural distillation of her experience coming of age in Baghdad under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Central to the work are themes of war, political upheaval, migration, and subsequent geographic and cultural displacement.

Also reflected in Sora’s work is a lifelong fascination with ancient Mesopotamia. Her principal affinity is for the technological innovation that occurred within the society, but she also has a deep interest in present-day archaeological sites—in terms of the archaeology; geology; and anthropology itself, but also the geopolitics of looting as an unmitigated emblem of the theft of cultural heritage in all forms.

Learn more in the above-linked press release, and browse a preview of works on view below.