Born in Iraq in 1945, he graduated as a painter from the High Academy of Fine Art in Baghdad in 1966. He earned a master’s degree in printmaking from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana in 1970, and a Ph.D. in the Science of Art in Moscow in 1984.

He has held 30 exhibitions in cities including Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus, Tripoli, Tunis, Muscat, Amman, Moscow, Paris, London, and Trondheim, and has participated in numerous international exhibitions.