Tepe Gawra

Bortolami is pleased to present Tepe Gawra, the first solo exhibition at the gallery by acclaimed painter Vian Sora (b. 1976, Baghdad, Iraq; based in Louisville, Kentucky). Sora is best known for vivid paintings in which pools of aqueous color jell into expressive compositions beset with sharp contours and subtle gradient shifts. Though her imagery is non-representational, there are fragments of figuration and text embedded in her works which allude to mythologies and histories of the ancient and contemporary world. It is the artist’s first exhibition of new works since opening her traveling museum survey show last year. Sora’s works begin with pours of liquid acrylic on canvases placed face up. She introduces pigments to the medium, mixing them so that they bloom into streams of deeply saturated chroma. While still wet, they spread like hot magma across the surface of the painting. This process is executed in dozens of layers, achieving a vast range of surfaces from dense, crystalline textures to watery, atmospheric fields of color. Sora then applies oil paints, creating freehand, hard-edged shapes resembling a broken cuneiform or Arabic calligraphy. This exhibition takes its title from the ancient Mesopotamian settlement, Tepe Gawra, located in what is present-day Iraq; Sora visited the site as a student. Excavations of Tepe Gawra have uncovered objects from 4900-4000 BCE which are adorned with lapis lazuli, the rich blue historical pigment also known as ultramarine. As it was sourced from over 1500 miles east of Mesopotamia, it is evidence of one the earliest known trade routes and a marker of cultural exchange in the region. Just as the advanced human society migrated outward from the so-called “cradle of civilization,” so too, did the export of ultramarine blue from Central Asia into Europe. During a residency last year in Umbria, Italy, Sora was reminded of the impact of lapis lazuli on the Western art canon. It was famously used in works by Giotto, Piero della Francesca and others whose patrons could finance even the sparest use of blue: mined in Afghanistan, processed into pigment and imported through Venice. In Tepe Gawra, Sora has used lapis lazuli throughout each work, both in the beginning stages of acrylic staining and the uppermost layers of oil in her compositions. In Tigris refrain, Sora recalls scenes from childhood visits to her grandfather’s home in Baghdad on the banks of the river. In Inflorescence, a deep ultramarine field envelops oranges, violets and greens emerging into coral-like patterns. Scarlet, a limited palette painting with metallic hues and subtle blues overlaid with crimson red, reflects a new direction for the artist – an emphasis on texture and objecthood in her painting and a nod to the artist’s more sculptural leanings. The exhibition’s largest work, Tamarisk (Purification), is over 12 feet in length. Its expansive horizontality and frenzied mark making disarm as much as its cool palette of violets, greens, and yellows soothe. It is not a depiction of creation nor destruction but an encapsulation of both. Vian Sora (b. 1976, Baghdad, Iraq; based in Louisville, Kentucky) has received increased recognition and exposure from recent exhibitions and museum acquisitions in the U.S. and Middle East. Her first museum survey exhibition, Outerworlds, debuted in June 2025 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California, which was curated by James Glisson. The show traveled to the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky in October 2025, which was curated by Tyler Blackwell. Sora has exhibited at Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, UAE; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; IMOGA Istanbul Museum of Graphic Art, Turkey; the KMAC Triennial, Louisville, Kentucky; Grinnell Museum of Art, Iowa, and other venues. Works by Sora are included in the permanent collections of the Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky; Baltimore Museum of Art; Dar El Cid Museum, Kuwait City, Kuwait; KMAC Museum, Louisville, Kentucky; Santa Barbara Museum of Art; MCA San Diego; Grinnell College Museum of Art, Iowa; Ministry of Culture Contemporary Collection, Baghdad, Iraq; the Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, Ohio; the Shands Collection, Louisville, Kentucky, and the Shah Garg Foundation, among others.

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