Maimouna Guerresi was born Patrizia Guerresi in Italy in 1951 to a conservative Catholic family. At the age of 40, she converted to Islam, taking the name Maimouna as her Islamic name. Over her life, she developed a career as a multimedia artist, working with photography, sculptures, video and installation. Because of her strong affiliation with Sufism, a form of mystical Islam, much of her work loos at the spirituality of human beings and their relationship to their inner mystic dimension. Within her art, she presents the hijab often and often incorporates a number of qualities of Islamic spirituality. Her art has been exhibited across the world, in Europe, Africa, North America, and the Middle East. She divides her time across these continents, with homes in Italy, New York, and Dakar, Senegal.