Sami Briss was born in Jassy, Romania, in 1930. He lived in Tel Aviv from 1960 to 1964 and later in Paris. The influence of his Jewish upbringing continues to permeate his artwork to this day. He was deeply impressed by the landscape and the majestic architecture of his hometown, as well as the colorful exterior frescoes of the churches in his homeland. His mother, a seamstress, passed on her love for design to him, and Briss showed an early interest in rich fabrics and embroidery, surprising her with his drawings. She encouraged his artistic development and was proud when he was accepted into the Beaux-Arts in Bucharest.

Initially, Briss painted still lifes, in which his eye for structure was evident. He experimented with lithography and woodcuts, but from the 1960s onward, he devoted himself entirely to painting. He worked with both oil paints and watercolors and learned the art of iconography, a part of his Romanian heritage. Briss transformed this ancient technique to adapt it to the imagery in his works, often dominated by shades of blue, pink, deep green, black, and gold leaf. This use of gold leaf references both the Jewish tradition and Romanian Christian folk art.

Briss created a unique world by filtering his memories and emotions through his subconscious. He developed his own vocabulary of symbols, where the fish symbolizes abundance, hands evoke strength and luck, and birds in flight represent hope.

Sami Briss is a painter of magical and wondrous images. His art evokes a nostalgia for icons, inspired by his homeland. He is often compared to artists like Paul Klee and Victor Brauner, with a symbolic and subtly stylized visual language. His color palette evokes tones of enamel, ceramics, and primitive art, and his work is rooted in myths and universal memories.