Vian Sora

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Vian Sora, born in 1976 in Baghdad, is an Iraqi American painter and author. She left Iraq in 2006 during the war and moved to Louisville, Kentucky with her husband in 2009. Sora works mainly with oils, but she also uses mixed media and engraving to create textured, three‑dimensional canvases. Her art blends expressionism and figurative imagery with contemporary abstract elements to express moods and scenes from ancient times. Her work shows East–West influences and often features women from different cultures as silent spiritualists and survivors.

She has exhibited widely in Iraq, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, parts of Europe, and the Middle East. Sora earned degrees from Al Mansour University College in Baghdad and Bellarmine University in the United States. She published a Turkish-language book about her work, Neher, Seher, Misafirat (River, Voyage, Time), a title also used for an exhibition at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Her most recent solo show was at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in September 2011, in support of WEAVE (Washington Empowered Against Violence).