RENEE KHATAMI was raised in Manhattan, the daughter of an Iranian father and an American mother. She majored in Art at Bard College where she studied with Elizabeth Murray, and at The Art Students League of New York with Bruce Dorfman. She holds Master’s degrees in Design from Pratt Institute and in Art Education from NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Several galleries and museums have featured Khatami's work. For many years she worked as an award-winning art director/book designer specializing in artist’s monographs, and has authored/designed two multisensory color books for children. The artist lives and works in New York City.

Khatami’s pieces utilize defined shapes, nuanced luminous layers of emerging and recessing transparent color. Texture evolves through the varied use of combined media – including water-based paint, glue, pencil lines, and cut razor drawing on paper, canvas, and some mounted on wood panels. Paper is a primary medium – a reference to a background in book design.  “Her work perhaps conjures cross sections of geological strata, in which fragments of different shapes and colors float together until the aggregate hardens and settles into a lively new pattern. Ultimately, focusing on Khatami’s glimmering multilayered surfaces, the viewer begins to rise above the challenges of everyday life.” –Mary Sargent, February 5, 2023,Two Coats of Paint.