Born in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Autonomous Region, Iraq. In 1976 he graduated from the Graphics Department, Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad. In 1980 he earned his diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy. From 1981 to 1986 he attended the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, majoring in Lithography. He has had many solo and group exhibitions in Iraq, Italy, France and Switzerland. He mainly works with paper, but he also uses other materials, among them metal wire.

Yousif Salih, Ohne Titel, 1990. Öl auf Leinwand, 42 x 49 cm