Michael Emani was born in Tehran, Iran in 1971. The political unrest of that era made for a difficult childhood. Michael and his sixteen year old brother were the last of his family to escape Iran. He survived an arduous journey on horseback, then by boat arriving in Italy where he awaited safe passage to the United States in 1980. He and his brother reconnected with his family in Atlanta, Georgia.

His creativity had begun around the age of 10 and continued to flourish upon his arrival in the States. His artistic focus in the early years was with woodworking. This fascination with creating surfaces and texture evolved, especially with the use of unconventional mediums to create forms. Michael was very reserved as a child and spent most of his time creating projects in the family's basement. He was known from the time he was a child to be prolific in his creativity, always planning the next thing he wanted to create.

As the decision to attend college came closer, it was clear that he would attend school for his artistic endeavors. He began studying sculpture at the University of Georgia and enjoyed his familiar skills from woodworking being used in a new medium. He experimented using this style of merging unique textures in painting on canvas, creating collage with wooden & metal found pieces and heavy brushstrokes. He began spending more of his time painting and decided to change his major to painting. This period had a very raw and rustic style in his overall evolution as a painter. He graduated with a B.F.A. in Painting and moved to Austin, Texas. After a few years, his coarse painting technique seemed to cause a retreat to a cleaner style of inanimate objects and a layout that creates motion on the canvas. He has the ability to make items we see in our daily lives seem to ascend to that of a playful animated scene. More recently, he experimented with rough silhouettes in dark light with traces of color and highlights. This introduced a refined use of color in reaction to the more cavalier style of his youth.
Michael's skills are self-taught through discipline and practice to achieve a look or capture a texture. His ability to explore and experiment with new mediums proves his strength and versatility as a painter and artist in general. His work continues to draw praise and is collected nationally and internationally.