Abstract Painting Now: Artist Panel Discussion
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Abstract Painting Now: Artist Panel Discussion
Free Panel - Register using the ticket link
Vian Sora, Crystal Gregory, and Alana Fitzgerald
Moderated by Tyler Blackwell, Curator of Contemporary Art
Hear from three Kentucky-based artists working in abstraction as they explore ideas about painting, gesture, color, material, and personal ideas of expression. Presented in tandem with the landmark current exhibitions Abstract Expressionists: The Women and Abstraction, Continued: Recent Paintings from the Speed Art Museum Collection, on view at the Speed through August 30.
The newly released catalogue Vian Sora: Outerworlds, published on the occasion of Sora’s traveling survey exhibition, will be available for purchase.
Vian Sora Bio
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. The exhibition will open at its final venue, Asia Society Texas Center in Houston, Texas on April 15, 2026, curated by Owen Duffy.
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, and the Making Their Mark Foundation, among others.
Alana Fitzgerald Bio
Alana Fitzgerald is a multidisciplinary artist and educator originally from New York, currently based between Louisville, KY and Asheville, NC. She graduated with a BFA from Cooper Union in 2009 and an MFA from the Hite Institute of Art and Design in 2026. She founded Ancient Future Farm in 2014 after being displaced by Hurricane Sandy and since then has explored the spaces between abstraction in painting and sculptural installation, community building and sustainability. Her work has been included in institutional and gallery spaces and also extended into waterways and forests as experimental exhibition venues. In recent years she has exhibited at Capacity Contemporary Exchange, Northern Kentucky University, Shaker Village, The Karen and Ted Koskores Gallery at Thayer Academy, and The CICA Museum in South Korea. In 2026 she presented her first solo exhibition since 2013 at Kore Gallery, and curated the group show Another Forest at the Louisville Visual Art project space.
Crystal Gregory Bio
Crystal Gregory is a sculptor whose work investigates the intersections between textile and architecture. Gregory received her BFA from the University of Oregon and her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago from the Fiber and Material Studies Department. She was awarded The Leonore Annenberg Fellowship for the Performing and Visual Arts, and with this award moved to Amsterdam, where she took a role as Guest Artist at The Gerrit Rietveld Academie of Art. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally including Through the Thread at the Rockwell Museum of Art, Devotion/Destruction: Craft Inheritance at Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Projects, Load Barring: The Art of Construction at The Hunterdon Art Museum, and Bodies at Rest, Brookfield Properties, Brooklyn Commons. Gregory’s work has been reviewed in publications such as Hyperallergic, Surface Design Journal, Art Critical, and Peripheral Vision Press, and incorporated into many collections including Al Shand’s collection at the Speed Museum and the US Embassy in Sri Lanka. Crystal Gregory is an Associate Professor within the School of Arts and Visual Studies and has recently been titled the Arturo Alonzo Sandoval Endowed Professorship in Fiber at the University of Kentucky. She is represented by Municipal Bonds Gallery in San Francisco.
Free Panel - Register using the ticket link
Vian Sora, Crystal Gregory, and Alana Fitzgerald
Moderated by Tyler Blackwell, Curator of Contemporary Art
Hear from three Kentucky-based artists working in abstraction as they explore ideas about painting, gesture, color, material, and personal ideas of expression. Presented in tandem with the landmark current exhibitions Abstract Expressionists: The Women and Abstraction, Continued: Recent Paintings from the Speed Art Museum Collection, on view at the Speed through August 30.
The newly released catalogue Vian Sora: Outerworlds, published on the occasion of Sora’s traveling survey exhibition, will be available for purchase.
Vian Sora Bio
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. The exhibition will open at its final venue, Asia Society Texas Center in Houston, Texas on April 15, 2026, curated by Owen Duffy.
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, and the Making Their Mark Foundation, among others.
Alana Fitzgerald Bio
Alana Fitzgerald is a multidisciplinary artist and educator originally from New York, currently based between Louisville, KY and Asheville, NC. She graduated with a BFA from Cooper Union in 2009 and an MFA from the Hite Institute of Art and Design in 2026. She founded Ancient Future Farm in 2014 after being displaced by Hurricane Sandy and since then has explored the spaces between abstraction in painting and sculptural installation, community building and sustainability. Her work has been included in institutional and gallery spaces and also extended into waterways and forests as experimental exhibition venues. In recent years she has exhibited at Capacity Contemporary Exchange, Northern Kentucky University, Shaker Village, The Karen and Ted Koskores Gallery at Thayer Academy, and The CICA Museum in South Korea. In 2026 she presented her first solo exhibition since 2013 at Kore Gallery, and curated the group show Another Forest at the Louisville Visual Art project space.
Crystal Gregory Bio
Crystal Gregory is a sculptor whose work investigates the intersections between textile and architecture. Gregory received her BFA from the University of Oregon and her MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago from the Fiber and Material Studies Department. She was awarded The Leonore Annenberg Fellowship for the Performing and Visual Arts, and with this award moved to Amsterdam, where she took a role as Guest Artist at The Gerrit Rietveld Academie of Art. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally including Through the Thread at the Rockwell Museum of Art, Devotion/Destruction: Craft Inheritance at Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Projects, Load Barring: The Art of Construction at The Hunterdon Art Museum, and Bodies at Rest, Brookfield Properties, Brooklyn Commons. Gregory’s work has been reviewed in publications such as Hyperallergic, Surface Design Journal, Art Critical, and Peripheral Vision Press, and incorporated into many collections including Al Shand’s collection at the Speed Museum and the US Embassy in Sri Lanka. Crystal Gregory is an Associate Professor within the School of Arts and Visual Studies and has recently been titled the Arturo Alonzo Sandoval Endowed Professorship in Fiber at the University of Kentucky. She is represented by Municipal Bonds Gallery in San Francisco.
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