Interview by Jimon

1- How would you describe Vahid Sharifian? I’m like an erotic amusement park island

2- You travel a lot do you have favorite city and why? St. Petersburg is the bride of the cities but not good to live, I love Paris and London energy but not the weather. New York is wonderful when the weather is perfect but she doesn’t like me anymore since I moved to LA. Mexico City is nice with dramatic girls. Istanbul is a permanent celebration with millions of broken hearts. Berlin is sad because people are pretending to be happy it’s like a celebration in a hospital but I still would like to visit. LA is a bunch of highways but they call it a city, the best weather in the universe I guess. Miami is like a permanent picnic but only in winters!

3- How long have you been making art and what lead you to start? I wanted to be a painter when I was 6 years old and I didn’t want to be anything else! My Grandpa was a great painter so was his uncle and all of my uncles are in art, somehow like collector, architect or Sunday painter!

4- Did you study art or is it inherent? I have a bachelor degree in painting.

5- Do you use live models or is it all from your imagination? For realistic paintings I do have models! They’re more my friends than professional models or both! But the other series of paintings which are a little bit wild are imaginative!

6- What do you dream about? Everything! I dream a lot! The last one that I remember, we were driving with all my family in an early morning and mountains are on both sides of the road and there are dogs everywhere with eyes flashing because of our headlights. I look back and I see a herd of dogs on the mountains, one of them is trying to jump from a cliff and I’m like oh! It seems suicidal! He jumps but he flies and the other dogs join him! We’re getting far and the herd of the dogs in the sky become a string of stars circling as if they’re the Milky Way!
7- Do you remember the first piece of art that captured your imagination? No

8- What would you be doing if you were not an artist? I don’t know what to do if I wasn’t an artist!

9- Your work definitely intrigues the senses, is that on purpose or is it personal? I guess it is a personal thing purposely! History of painting has been pervert! We can’t change it in one night! It’s a part of that but we can use it in a beautiful way! I think human beings need to be attracted by each other! It doesn’t matter if you’re a male or female or queer!

10- What influences you as an artist? History of art, Nature and women!

11- You are very active on social media how has social media affected your work? It’s almost a year I’ve been a shadow, banned by IG! But I love how we all can get connected to each other on social media! I’ve made a lot of virtual friends, they become real while I’m traveling!

12- How do you define success? Success is creating and making people excited about whatever you do! The rest is not success, I call it luck! I mean getting famous and working with mega galleries is about your luck and connections at the best time, and in our time it’s about how conservative you are, how flexible you are ! I think our time is one of the most passive times in the history of art, because artists are too affected by the Media! I mean the problem is how public media uses your brain for their targets! And 90% of us become sheep and we just repeat whatever they say without any research! And there are lots of artists who are famous for promoting the media propagandas and galleries are welcoming them!

13- If you could have dinner with 3 artists living/dead who would be at your table? Picabia, Kippenberger and Polke. But let’s invite Courbet too!

14- If you could live in any museum anywhere in the world which would be your choice? Vahid sharifian Art museum

15- Do you have a place/person/thing that you visit for inspiration? There’s a lot

16- How would someone find you on social media? Instagram; offside_art or vahidsharifian

17- Please name the first thing that comes to your mind while reading the following:

Art= Art history
Food= A dinner with a beautiful girl
Sports= Ice hockey (idk why)
Politics= My brainwashed friends
Poor= Tear
God= Stars
Rich= Self confidence
Luxury= A snobby dumbass
Sex= The Turkish bath by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Picasso= A Dope signature
Religion= My Heart