A potential cast member on Canada’s Lake Shore–a reality show where eight cast members from different backgrounds and sexual orientations move into a house together, and learn how to not step on each other’s toes–Iranian-Canadian, Roxie aka Persia, says of the forthcoming TV show: Continue Reading

Lost Art original piece in Washington, DC--Photo: RJS

Recently we had the pleasure of meeting prominent (and tireless) Iranian-American artist, Farzad Kohan…And uncontrollably, he’s managed to turn us into a collector, curator, fan, and friend.

“Art is the purest vehicle of the human expression: When all else fails we communicate our emotions, our ideals, our hopes and dreams through our art.” Quips Kohan, whose ability to connect on an-almost spiritual level with his audience, still fascinates us. Continue Reading

New York–ILLUMINATIONS (After Arthur Rimbaud) an exhibition of sculpture, video and installation by 16 well-known and emerging artists who work with light, will be on view at Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller (LTMH) Gallery from September 15 through October 15, 2010.

Inspired by a collection of poetry entitled Illuminations by Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), the exhibition is curated by Ashok Adicéam, an independent curator and art advisor. (A fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Adicéam will accompany the exhibition.)

Creating a revealing dialogue between artists living and working in the East and West, ILLUMINATIONS (After Arthur Rimbaud) highlights the strength of light to bind different cultures together.

As Rimbaud wrote, “…the soul for the soul, summing up everything, perfumes and sounds and colors.”

While a number of the artists are inspired by neon lighting, Iranian artist Leila Pazooki, uses blue neon tubes to sculpt a Persian word in Orientalism, 2010.

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Check out Persiansque Magazine’s exclusive interview with Jimmy Vestvood: He dishes on his life as a Private Investigator, son, and now…Sexiest Persian Alive.

PERSIANESQUE MAGAZINE: With great thanks for joining us for this interview, how does it feel to be voted “The Sexiest Persian Alive”?

JIMMY VESTVOOD: Oh my gosh, supertacular! I esteel can’t believe it. Vow! Who came in 2nd?

PEM: No one. You got 100% of the votes.

JV: Axellent!

PEM: On behalf of all the ladies out there, I need to ask you: Are you single?

JV: Uh…Yes.

PEM: You hesitated.

JV: Vell, okay, I admit, I have been saving myself for Charleez Teron but she is playing a little hard to get, so I tink it is time for me to move on and date odder vomen.

PEM: Charlize Theron, wow, you have great taste in women. Do you have a type?

JV: I am an equal opportoonity sexist. Persian, Amerikan, Escandanavian. Blonde, Broonet, Redhair. Estraight, lesbian, bisexual. I don’t diskriminate.  I love vomen. Espeshelly if they have a hot body and know how to cook like my mother.

PEM: Your mother must be a good cook. What’s your favorite dish?

JV: Potatoe tahdeeg and koo-koo sandvich.

PEM: Ummmm! …Are you close to your mother? Do you see her everyday?

JV: I live vith her!

PEM: You mean you don’t have your own bachelor pad?

JV: No, I live vith Maman in an apartment in Vestvood.

PEM: Of course you do, Mr. Jimmy Vestvood! By the way, what’s your real name?

JV: Jamshid Vahedi, but I changed it to Jimmy Vestvood vhen I became a private investeegator.

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L: Mahee Doudy va Khaviar (Smoked Whitefish & Caviar on Sangak Toasts) Geoff Mottram, R: Chef Maziar Farivar

Have you ever wondered why there is such a lack of Persian Chefs in the culinary world?

We have.

So we searched and researched–sniffing around the global kitchen–and found our first five-star/diamond (in our opinion at least) Persian Chef in the US: Maziar Farivar, of Georgetown’s Prospect St.-treasure, Peacock Cafe.

Dubbed, “Peacock” for short by regulars, the atmosphere inside his restaurant feels warm and hospitable–like most Persian homes–but not intrusively so.

“When people walk through our doors, they become our guests.” Says the James Beard Foundation-acknowledged Farivar.

Being recognized by the prestigious James Beard Foundation, a non-profit and center of America’s culinary community–whose mission is to “celebrate, nurture, and preserve America’s diverse culinary heritage and future,”–is the ultimate honor to receive for American Chefs, yet Farivar, the man behind the DC-hot-spot has already been there twice; once as a member of the DC All-Stars Chefs team, and more recently as the featured Chef for the organization’s “Norouz: Persian New Year” event, where Farivar served a Norouz dinner to 75 guests/culinary industry elite. Continue Reading

Less is more, right?

In this case: Yes!

As the “KISS” design principle suggests, Fine Art Photographer, Aras Karimi, keeps it simple.

“I like to give a chance to the viewer to experience their own emotion while they are coinciding with an expression of mine.” Notes the Iranian artist who leaves all of his photographs untitled (and uncomplicated…At least at first sight.).

Karimi sees photography as “a relationship between light and film: light as a playful actor and film as a serious recorder. Light is the subject of my works. Unlike the usual process in photography that uses light as a mean to record a scene and tell its story, I am interested in light as a story teller.”

Having developed his own technique to capture light, Karimi says: “Sometimes I set the camera in a location and take pictures of natural light through time. Sometimes I move the camera with the change of light in time. All of these efforts are to illustrate light in its most naked way, freeing and extracting it from the sense of time, space, and objects.”

Attracted to the quiet power that his imagery exerts, we find Karimi’s vision to be intentional, catching, and angularly-futuristic.

And compared to the over-exposure (no pun intended) of black and white shots all over the world and web, Karimi’s end product(s) easily goes far beyond just good framing.

The “irresistible playful beauty of light,” as Karimi puts it–as well as his ability to create such involving contrast–is felt almost instantaneously in his bold pieces.

We feel it’s because, while photographers are taught to “find the light and follow it,” it seems, Karimi has found the light and is moving it around at his own discretion.

Visit ArasKarimi.com for more.