Vian Sora is an Iraqi contemporary painter whose atmospheric work embraces decay, turmoil and the dynamics of change enmeshed with cultural and historical references. Growth and the bonds between civilizations and nature are central themes in her work as Sora seeks to break borders, often challenging the fixity of the figure-ground relationship, along with restrictions on subject matter. Sora’s practice is in pursuit of a collective consciousness where the “I” is not central. Commencing in 2025, Sora will have a traveling solo museum show at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Speed Art Museum and the Asia Society Texas.

Artist, curator, and critic Andrew Woolbright is based in Brooklyn, New York, and is an MFA graduate from RISD in painting. Woolbright is the founder and director of the gallery Below Grand located on the Lower East Side in New York. In addition to curating, he is an Editor-at-Large at the Brooklyn Rail. In 2021, Woolbright curated the show Density Betrays Us with Angela Dufresne and Cash Ragona at the Hole; and curated shows at Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center and Hesse Flatow in the summer of 2022. He currently teaches at School of Visual Arts and Pratt Institute and is a 2021–2022 resident at the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program in Dumbo.