Mahtab Basiri was born in August 16, 1993 in Shiraz, Iran. Since her childhood, she was passionate in painting and she used to pass her free time doing painting and making small statues. In 1998, along with her family, she moved to Tehran (the capital of Iran). She passed her childhood and her Adolescence there and after 11 years she returned to her birth place and continued her education in Graphic design. After finishing high school, she demonstrated her graphic works in a public exhibition. At the age of 17, she decided to follow her interest seriously and professionally so she learned many professional techniques from Hassan Meshkinfam who is a very well-known Iranian artist. After a while she demonstrated her paintings work in another public exhibition and she received many positive comments on her works. In 2011, she started her bachelor degree in Art at Azad University of Shiraz and in her 7th semester, she was invited to a workshop and her work was chosen as one of the bests in the workshop, and was sold. In the same time, three pieces of her works was chosen by her supervisor in the department of Art, as the subject of her thesis. After finishing the university, she immigrated to the U.S. with her parents. In one of her travels back to Iran, with the help of Meshkinfam she held a solo exhibition. Now she is living with her parents in Houston, Texas and her sister and brother live in Canada.

My interest in painting started when I figured out how much I like to draw whatever I see around me on the paper and give them some colors of my taste, which might sound a little bit superficial. After starting my studies at university, in the field of art and painting, I gained more knowledge and a better insight about art and at this time, art had a more profound meaning to me than just some colors and shapes on the paper. At this point, art became more spiritual and sometimes it was the only companion that I had while I was not capable of expressing my feelings and emotions. Music has always been my inspiration for painting. Music helps me to visualize my ideas and empowers the feelings I am about to create in my work. Although my painting style is surreal, the contents and the concept of the work are completely real and I have some works in “Real” style too. The reason of my interest in “Surreal style” is that, whatever I draw and create is in my mind where there is no rules and anything can come in any form and shape, and this is somewhere beyond the reality of life.