Born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1984, Mohammed Sami studied painting at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad before relocating to Sweden and eventually settling in the United Kingdom. He furthered his formal education at the Belfast School of Art, where he refined his approach to figurative and atmospheric painting.

Sami’s work is characterized by a distinctive use of light and shadow to imbue mundane settings—such as empty offices, abandoned rooms, or discarded furniture—with a sense of psychological weight. His practice often draws upon his personal history and experiences of conflict, translating collective memory into quiet, unsettling compositions.

His work has gained significant international recognition, with exhibitions at major institutions including the Camden Art Centre and the Whitechapel Gallery. He is widely noted for his ability to evoke the presence of the absent through a restrained, painterly technique.