Shahram is one of six children (two sisters and four brothers). "My father was from Bushehr and worked at the post office in Shiraz. He was a well-educated, well-known person and had political inclinations. So from the beginning, he was inclined toward the Tudeh party. And he spread such a spirit, that is, political-social sensitivities among his children.

His older brother, Jamshid, made him start painting at an early age. In addition to his brother Jamshid, who had already become a well-known painter in Shiraz, his other brother Rahman also was a poet, and these two paved the way for new friendships for him. "One fortune in my life is to meet influential and intelligent people from my high school days. Among them, the poet Shapour Jorkesh, the writer Moniro Ravanipour, Farshid Beheshti, etc., formed a group that did an intellectual and cultural activity in Shiraz, and I became the youngest member of this group."

After receiving his diploma, he pursued painting more seriously and was surrounded by new friends. Hassan Meshkinfam, the late Hossein Mirzaei, Jedi and Younisi. "We used to go around Shiraz to paint together a lot of times. "Pushtmeleh, Three Mills, Qasr Al-Dasht Gardens Alley and... I owe the introduction to watercolor, which plays an important role in my later and recent works, to Mr. Younsi, a master watercolorist and painter." After graduating high school, he participated in a group exhibition, Southern Designers. This exhibition was shown in 1976, first in Shiraz and then in Takht Jamshid Hall in Tehran.

Shahram Karimi, in 1977, was admitted to the painting department of the Faculty of Decorative Arts (Current Art University). Shirdel and Boroujeni are among his teachers. But his admission to the university coincided with the critical days leading to the uprising on February 11, 1979. His concerns before brought him to the field of socio-political activities in Tehran. "In the student council, as a student representative, I followed their activities and union work. Except for drawing classes, I was less present in most of the classes, and together with one or two of my friends, we went to the south of the city and drew people's faces in coffee houses. With the cultural revolution and the closure of universities, he remained in Shiraz (1980).

"I taught painting with Alireza Zarif at the design gallery, Hassan Meshkinfam at the Rembrandt studio, and the Vesal gallery. I also launched the Del Afkar Gallery on Molla Sadra Street. During this period, I participated in several group exhibitions in Shiraz and at the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Tehran... In the mid-80s, when Shapour Jorkesh, Gholamhossein Emami, and Shapour Bonyad launched Ketab-e-Esfand on Moadel Street, at my suggestion, one of the walls was assigned an exhibition of paintings, and I held my first solo exhibition there in 1989". In the same year, he left Iran for Germany forever. At first, he went to India for six months and then went to Germany. "At the beginning of my arrival in Germany, I was confused at first, and this was because I had studied style in Iran, and in Germany, I encountered the breadth and depth of the Western painting, and I realized that I had looked at it touristic and superficial. I realized that I was not an Iranian painter even in Iran, and it got me thinking, where are my position and the cultural position of my country? So I started to seriously study western paintings and old Iranian paintings. Finally, I came to my senses... Gradually, these studies helped me to know myself and Iran's visual culture better and not to be just a consumer." This bravery resulted in receiving the first prize in a competition held every two years in the Rhein-Sieg region of Germany. In recognition of this honor, the first solo exhibition of his works was held in Germany at the Siegburg Museum. Another chance for him this year is to find his old friend Shoja Yousef Azari who lived in the United States. So he traveled to the U.S. and met Shirin Neshat through his friend, and after that, he worked with Shirin Neshat as a film set designer.

In 2003, Shahram Karimi was selected as the representative of Germany with Devange (a painting and a film shot in Egypt) to participate in the Istanbul Biennale. During his residence in Germany, Karimi has done various other works such as video art, installation, photography, conducting workshops, teaching art, and painting. Karimi's paintings combine elements of calligraphy, drawing, and sometimes free and abstract coloration, along with obsessive and detailed finishes, often on unprepared and used fabrics and cardboard. "seventy percent of my materials are these. I don't work on white canvas, but my canvases are often made of scrap materials. I don't do anything on them for underlaying, and I allow the characters or writings on them to appear in my works."

Designs and manuscripts that often form a poem or a story are the most important elements of Karimi's paintings, to which color is added later and, of course, in a predetermined process. "I don't necessarily work in the studio. Instead, I might start working on the cardboard or fabric I have on the train. Masoud Saad al-Din writes about Karimi: "Shahram is an Iranian painter and at the same time a global artist painter. Someone who goes beyond the geographical borders and searches for his identity in frequent transit between the borders of East and West, West and East." "Rice bags and pizza cartons have a direct relationship with food, and Shahram's works become food for the soul in their mythical form."