NEW YORK, NY.- David Nolan Gallery announced representation of Iraqi-American painter Vian Sora (b. 1976, Baghdad; based in Louisville, KY since 2009), who has in the past six months been the subject of multiple museum acquisitions including the Baltimore Museum of Art. The representation announcement coincides with Sora's first New York solo exhibition, currently on view at David Nolan Gallery (24 East 81 Street, a block from the Met).

Visitors to Art Basel Miami Beach this month will see four of Sora's works presented by David Nolan Gallery (Booth A51), as well as an ambitious 7-by-29-foot painting in Art Basel's large-scale Meridians section, presented by Luis de Jesus Los Angeles.

Sora's current body of work futhers her practice's abstract, gestural distillation of her experience coming of age in Baghdad under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, as well as her lifelong fascination with Ancient Mesopotamia. Central to the work are themes of war, political upheaval, migration, and subsequent geographic and cultural displacement.

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 theIstanbul Museum of Graphic Art 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 Museum of Graphic Art, Istanbul, Turkey; Japanese Foundation Culture Center, Ankara, Turkey; and the Baghdad Art International Art Festival in Iraq; as well as the KMAC Triennial, Louisville, KY; Grinnell Museum of Art, Grinnell, IA; and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington D.C., among others.

Her work is included in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Dar El CidMuseum, Kuwait City, Kuwait; KMAC Museum, Louisville, KY; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, SantaBarbara, 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, as well as numerous private collections.