Shaban Bamerni was born in 1976 in Iraq. He started painting people and nature when he went to primary school. As a 16-year-old, he decided that art was what he wanted to make for a living. Between 1992 and 1997 he studied at an art school in Kurdistan, where he later became a teacher. In 1999, he decided to come to Norway due to the situation in Iraq. He has participated in several group exhibitions in Norway, and had three solo exhibitions.