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Q. Where are you from?

A. I come from Rome, Italy. I’ve been traveling a lot in my life, I lived in Israel, Switzerland, France. I love to move around and discover other cultures. I never had a tourist mentality.

Q. Why are you an artist and when did you first become one?

A. I’m an artist because I feel the urge to create and if I don’t, I feel guilty and miserable, I feel like im not doing what im supposed to do. I’ve been creative since childhood, I would draw comic books, write stories, build stuff with Lego… Being creative is everything to me, I’d feel useless if I didn’t put nothing new into this world. Being an inspiration for others is also something very important to me, I hope I’ll achieve that someday.

Q. What are your art influences?

A. Many. I always feel inspired looking for new artists, going to artshows and browsing artists’ pages on the internet. I love Cy Twombly or Basquiat as much as I love Gidget Gein or Shepard Fairey. I’ve been mainly into street and contemporary art lately, and I fell in love with Gregor Schneider too.

Q. What is it that inspires you to paint a particular subject?

A. As I said, it’s this urge that keeps me going. I would pick a subject rather then another with no particular reason. I am influenced by reality, by life and death, sex and fame. Humanity. But it’s not so obvious if you look at my art. I first paint it, then I ask myself what it means and the answers I find are usually quite fucked up so I always like people to find out their own interpretation to what I paint..

Q. How did you develop your style?

A. I have no fine arts degree. I am more into the DIY style. I like to find my way on my own so I developed my style getting inspired by others work and just actually DOING it the way I like it. I’m still testing things, experimenting, so stay tuned for more…

Q. What mediums do you paint in and do you have a preference?

A. I mix hand colouring with screenprinting. I love the effect screenprinting does, I love photographic images, I’m not into drawn stuff. Popart had a major influence on me.

Q. What materials do you use to create your art?

A. I love any kind of paper, found objects and I rarely use canvases. I go buy my art supplies at hardware stores or graffiti shops rather then fineart stores. I like to keep it cheap, dirty and raw.

Q. Could you tell us some more about your work?

A. No. you do!

Q. What inspires you to create art and how do you keep motivated when things get tough?

A. I used to play in bands before painting. Then I was unsatisfied because I would always have to comply to other bandmate’s taste. The italian music scene was not promising at all, I got fascinated with art, I found a spot where to paint and splat and screenprint and sticked to it. It’s always gonna be tough, but what else could I do? I may slow down, but I will never stop.

Q. What other interests do you have outside of creating art?

A. Movies are my biggest passion. Movies movies and more movies. It’s a way of escaping reality, diving into something else and disconnect your brain for a couple of hours.

Q. What kind of Music do you listen to?

A. Hip Hop and Rock music mainly.

Q. What’s your opinion on the art scene today?

A. It’s exciting, fresh and very very original. I’m optimistic because in art you get to succeed if you are good, constant and productive. As long as you keep doing it, you’ll be able to get some success at some point. The Italian art scene is very poor, they’re not following the artistic standards of the rest of the world. I’m not talking about the italian artists, some are very good, I’m talking about the galleries and the institutions. We are still sticking to classics, galleries are scared of proposing some new blood because the collectors wouldn’t understand it and buy it. That’s why I like to showcase my art internationally. They’re still not getting it here but there’s some exceptions of course.

Q. Do you think porn should ever become an accepted art form?

A. Of course, why not. Art could speak about anything and well, porn is part of most people’s life. Someone likes it so much they would even hang it on their wall rather then hiding it. That’s very genuine and honest.

Q. Is there anything else you’d like to say about you, your art?

A. To get updated on my shows and news, click www.valeriopierbattista.info