Samaneh Atef was born in Bandar Abbas, on the southern coast of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in 1989. Samaneh studied Software Engineering Technology and sought her independence by initially working as an engineer with difficulty, in an often ostile family and social context. In a moment of depression she discovers Frida Kahlo’s painting and how the Mexican artist trasformed her life and her suffering into a power visual language. And so she began to paint, as a self-taught artist. Her art is not compatible with the mullahs’ regime. Since 2020 she had lived in exile in Lyon, also following an internal exile before her escape. In 2022 she was invited to Documenta 15 for the debate: “Dissident artists in exile”. 

Her work has been published in Raw Vision #105 and in Osservatorio Outsider Art #26.