Yusef Hourani was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1999. After completing his secondary education, Yusef quickly sought to pursue a career in art which led him to the city of Florence, Italy where he formally studied the classical method of academic drawing and painting at the Florence Academy of Art under the direction of Daniel Graves. It was there in Florence that he also studied the practice of Iconography under the private tutoring of Sister Giselle Cappuccini, a nun from the Fraternités de Jérusalem based in the Badia Fiorentina Church in the historical center of the city. 

In 2025 Yusef completed a Masters of Traditional Arts at the King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts in London focusing on Medieval painting techniques and Iconography. He is currently undertaking a Postgraduate Diploma in Art for Christian Worship at the Pontifical Atheneum of Saint Anselm in Rome.

Yusef also draws from the rich tradition of Islamic art which inspires his decorative arts practice such as manuscript illumination, and ceramics.