Reza Shafahi Iranian, b. 1940

Reza Shafahi (b.1940, Iran) a self-taught artist who amongst his previous incarnations was a trained wrestler, first started painting in 2012 at the ripe age of 72, as part of the long-term art project, Daddy Sperm, by his son Mamali Shafahi. The initial idea was for father and son to work on identical subjects and show them side-by-side in the Daddy Sperm exhibition in Paris. Since then, Reza Shafahi has continued drawing from his own imagination and with his own inspiration.

At first he drew images on paper with pencil and marker which were mostly subjective forms and physiognomies, but later the works became mysterious in content, and these are the paintings he now produces on a regular basis.

His work has been exhibited by Magic of Persia (Dubai), Marlborough Chelsea Gallery, New York, SpazioA Gallery in Pistoia (curated by Martha Kirszenbaum) and in a one-man show at the Erratum Galerie, Berlin. He states that novels, Khayyam poems, cinema, television, photographs and world news have had a great influence on the formation of his works, but what is actually seen by the viewer seems far removed from the world, and instead seems to encapsulate a hidden life of fantasy and dark eroticism.

In 2019 he participated with Mamali in "City Prince/sses" at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. He had his first solo show in New York at Clubrhubarb in 2020, then another at Situations Gallery in 2022. Most recently, in the spring of 2022, Reza and Mamali featured in an 18-page interview spread in Apartamento magazine.