Zakir Mehtiev was born on October 4, 1948, in the city of Ganja. After finishing high school in 1965, he enrolled in the Azim Azimzade Azerbaijan State Art School, where he studied under Gafar Seyfullayev and Hafiz Mammadov.

In 1969, he graduated from the painting department of the school. From 1970 to 1972, he worked at the Azerbaijan Art Fund. In 1972, he entered the Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after V.I. Surikov. Mehtiev's diploma work was the composition "Mother" and "Poetess-Mekhseti" (supervised by Mikhail Baburin).

In 1976, he received the Lenin Komsomol Prize for his work "Steelworker." In 1977, he won the "Best Work of the Year" award. After graduating from the sculpture faculty of this institute in 1978, Mehtiev returned to Baku.

Since 1978, Zakir Mehtiev has participated in various republican, all-union, and international exhibitions. Besides this, Mehtiev was also involved in teaching. From 1981 to 1984, he was a postgraduate student at the creative workshops of the USSR under the guidance of Omar Eldarov.

In 1983, during a creative trip to Germany, at the all-union exhibition of creative postgraduate students, Mehtiev's work was acquired by a museum in Berlin. In 1987, he received a diploma at the Biennale. Mehtiev's works ("Motherhood," 1983) are included in collections such as "Modern Soviet Sculpture" (published by Soviet Artist).

From 1983 to 2000, he taught sculpture at the Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University.

In 1999, he won first place among sculptors in Azerbaijan at a competition dedicated to the 2000 Olympics organized by the Azerbaijan Olympic Committee in Sydney. In 2000, he placed fourth in the world at a sculpture competition dedicated to the 2000 Olympics. From 2000 to 2016, he taught sculpture, served as an associate professor, and was the head of the department at Mustafa Kemal Atatürk University in Turkey. In Antakya, he created a monument to Atatürk. He is the author of a relief dedicated to Atatürk. In Turkey, he created a sculptural complex, an alley of busts of great scientists in history, called "Bilim yolu öncüleri" ("Pioneers of the Path of Science").

Mehtiev's works are part of the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan, the Museum of Modern Art (Baku), the Humay Gallery (London), museums in Finland, Hungary, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, the Krishna Sanat Merkezi Gallery (Ankara), and the Baku Art Center "Yeni Gallery."

In May 2017, Mehtiev's works were exhibited in a mixed exposition of the "IRS" ("Heritage") exhibition, conducted by the Ministry of Tourism, the Azerbaijan State Art Gallery, and the Museum Center.

Throughout his creative career, Zakir Mehtiev has created monuments to Mujiraddin Beylagani in the city of Beylagan, Shah Ismail Khatai and Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev in Baku, Ismail Bek Kutkashensky in Gabala, Atatürk in Antakya, as well as memorial plaques and busts in Azerbaijan and Turkey.