Mahtab Aslani was born in Tehran, Iran in 1961. She attended Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin. She received her BFA from The Art Institute of Chicago in 1992. At the Art Institute she was a recipient of the Presidential Scholarship from 1987 to 1992. While at Brooklyn College she has been awarded the Charles G. Shaw Memorial Award for excellence in art in 1999 and a Teaching Assistantship to teach Basic Design in 2000.