Jenny and the City Exclusive Interview with Artist Sona Mirzaei

Interview by Jenny Leeser, Jenny and the City Photos courtesy of Sona

Sona Mirzaei is a multi-disciplinary artist from Los Angeles, CA. Sona studied at the Florence Academy of Art and learned many abilities to propel her art career further. She has been featured in the Huffington Post and Miami Living Magazine, Vegas to LA recently as a celebrated artist. Internationally awarded Artist of the Year by the London International Creative Competition in 2014, and by Art for Progress in New York City, and as an LA winner for Scope Art Basel Bombay Gin with Rush Philanthropic and featured artist with Saatchi art gallery as well.

Her body of work include large scale abstract paintings, collage- mixed media, pop art, street art, public art, and sculptures. Sona’s approach to art is culturally rich, bold, daring, while evoking a gentleness. Sona conceptualism is as much street art as poetry, beckoning us with seeming self-help earnestness to “just be you,” “whatever it takes,” “who cares,” and “do epic shit.” But it is in the realm of form-and-color-as-form-and-color that Mirzaei nestles most comfortably – and takes off in many directions. She achieves great depth and contrast with use of her brush work, creating paintings with dynamic layers and texture, manifesting dimensions, liveliness, and joy. Diversity and culture define her work and bridges her outlook on life with the creative expression of many interests that serves to be a motivation and force in her life. Art and color create energy that provokes an emotional reaction that is meaningful and organic to humanity. She says, “without our imaginations, we are nothing”, and this ails Sona every day to create and keep society inspired.

Her work has been widely exhibited throughout California, Art Basel Miami, Saatchi Gallery in London, Dubai, Europe. Including the Asian Civilization Museum of Art in Singapore, Milton Museum in Massachusetts, the Tokyo National Museum of Art in 2019, and most recently with the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum in 2021. As well as being featured on TV shows, KTLA News, FOX, Million Dollar Listings on Bravo, The Morning Show, Beverly Hills Housewives, etc., in many magazines, collected by high-profile patrons, executives, and celebrities, in a leading multi-million-dollar homes all over the world! She has corporate sponsorships with Air France, Wells Fargo, The Ritz Carlton, Bombay Gin, etc. for various art projects throughout her career to for these extraordinary creations and achievements.

A statement by Los Angeles based art critic, Peter Frank: “Sona is certainly an artist of our times. She seems almost literally to whip her abstract paintings into shape. The results of her furious brush-wielding are roiled surfaces and foreign materials brought to a sudden, almost revelatory visual coherency, exciting to witness. In Sona works, the painting is the place, the paint is the thing, the thingness of the place is the point. The canvas may be encrusted with paint, but its resulting objecthood is not its prime raison d’être; its space, so much immateriality wrested from so much materiality, is. Neither your eye nor the myriad prominent painterly incidents get lost in the web of infinitude, but they do get untethered. A mark in Mirzaei’s universe is a glowing cipher, a morsel of space dust but a special one, loaded with potential, prepared to do epic shit on the most epic scale.”

WHEN AND HOW DID YOU START PAINTING? I was very expressive as a child and highly interested in art at an early age. My mother knew that I was more into sports and athletically driven. They never pushed art or music too forcefully, but I did well on school assignments, and my passions developed. I started producing artwork around 10 years old when my sister was sick, and that was abstract works. Somewhat like what Damien Hirst produces now with the spin wheels with a blend of Jackson Pollack.

WHEN AND HOW DID YOU START PAINTING? I was very expressive as a child and highly interested in art at an early age. My mother knew that I was more into sports and athletically driven. They never pushed art or music too forcefully, but I did well on school assignments, and my passions developed. I started producing artwork around 10 years old when my sister was sick, and that was abstract works. Somewhat like what Damien Hirst produces now with the spin wheels with a blend of Jackson Pollack.

WHEN DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU WANTED TO BE AN ARTIST?

I was enamored with Persian, Greek and Roman history- classical art. Later I was exposed about other artists after spending a lot of time in museums while traveling abroad and home. The artists outside of traditional art that made an impression were Rothko, Frankenthaler, Picasso, Matisse, Renoir, Cezanne, Pollack, Miro, Motherwell, Warhol, Basquiat, Rodin, Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Rubens, Lawrence, Gainsbourg, etc. I studied their work in art history and I knew that I wanted to be an artist, but how to have my own voice was the mystery to unfold. Time did its job, I guess.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU? Everyday life inspires me. Working out, playing sports, traveling, creating, culture, cuisines, concerts, music, fashion, reading, learning, cinema, building relationships, humanitarian issues, etc., you name it. It all makes an impact. You never know what can happen in one day that can lead into many lives and creativity.

WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE ARTIST AND WHY? Picasso - I love him because you can never get bored with his work. There is something for everyone and in many genres, mediums, colors, and never limited. He painted the way he wanted to, art was treated like a business, and that was always inspiring for me. He was commercial but not like Warhol, he was very passionate about life, and competitive in nature, but with himself overall in his own league. I can relate and see these qualities within myself.

WHICH IS YOUR FAVORITE CITY IN WORLD? Los Angeles is my home which I love, but I also like Manhattan, London, Paris, Tulum, Rome, Barcelona, Miami, Istanbul, and others. It’s very tough to have a favorite when I have so many fond memories everywhere.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR RECENT ART SHOW? Everything Now Exhibition is a happy diary of the last few years during the pandemic and post till now. There is a bit of everything from the Word Porn series graffiti with positive uplifting mantras, and the Talking Heads sculptures. My abstracts which are new as well. I had time to create a great new body of work that was different, additions to ongoing series, then also an entire new genre of work art that I had not done since I was in high school. I decided to go back to the basics of what I love art and that started with still-life floral portraitures. My studio is in Malibu with a lot of nature, succulents and wildlife on a nursey, so this is a part of my inspiration – nature. The Papillion series is all about the pursuit of chasing dreams and embracing life, then letting go. Thankfully, all the work flows well together. Butterflies and flowers create a colorful life. This show is all about spring and nature, so that is a prominent theme throughout.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO BE AN ARTIST? My advice would be to follow your interests in life (as Jeff Koons told me that many years ago) that is forever changing and adapt to those feelings and express it in whatever capacity you see fit. Follow your dreams. I am still going. Don’t give up and Do Epic Shit, my motto! This is a lifetime relationship like golf. Ups and downs. There are no guarantees to absolute success, sales, nor an express way to fame. You must work very hard to achieve success as an artist; this is a business which is surrounded with building and maintaining relationships that can change your life. However, you must stay true to your soul and just be awesomely you!

Social Media: IG: thesonamirzaei