March 6th, 2026 — During her 2025 residency at Civitella Ranieri, Vian Sora (CRF 2025) reflected on lapis lazuli, the rich blue historical pigment also known as ultramarine. In her latest solo exhibition Tepe Gawra, which opens today at Bortolami in New York City, Vian uses lapis lazuli throughout each work bridging the ancient Mesopotamian settlement the exhibition takes its name from, located in what is present-day Iraq, with Italy, where the export of ultramarine blue was famously used in works by Giotto, Piero della Francesca, and others whose patrons could finance even the sparest use of blue.
The Iraq-born, Kentucky-based painter is best known for vivid compositions in which pools of aqueous color jell into expressive compositions beset with sharp contours resembling a broken cuneiform or Arabic calligraphy. 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 Outerworlds last year.
Excavations of Tepe Gawra have uncovered objects from 4900-4000 BCE which are adorned with lapis lazuli. 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 her residency last year, Vian was reminded of the impact of lapis lazuli on the Western art canon: mined in Afghanistan, it was 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 Streams of lazouli, angular punctuations of blue surround a tempestuous palette of organic yellows, greens and violets, made as Sora contemplated the increasingly disconcerting attitudes within the U.S. towards immigrant communities such as hers. 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 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. The exhibition will open at its final venue, Asia Society Texas Center in Houston, Texas on April 15, 2026, curated by Owen Duffy.
Tepe Gawra is on view now through April 18th. To learn more and plan your visit, head to www.bortolamigallery.com.
After this, revisit Vian’s fellow Fellow Heather Stebbins’ (CRF 2025) impression of Civitella, featuring sounds collected from Vian at work on a large-scale painting.