JANANNE AL-ANI

Jananne Al Ani was born in Kirkuk, Iraq in 1966. She studied Fine Art at the Byam Shaw School of Art, and graduated with an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art in 1997. She lives in London and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the London College of Communication.

She has had solo shows at Darat al Funun, Amman (2010); Tate Britain (2005); and the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington DC (1999). Recent group exhibitions include “The Future of a Promise”, Magazzini del Sale, 54th Venice Biennale (2011); “Women War Artists”, Imperial War Museum, London (2011); “Closer”, Beirut Art Center (2009); “The Screen-Eye or the New Image: 100 Videos to Rethink the World”, Casino Luxembourg (2007); and “Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking”, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2006). She has also co-curated exhibitions including “Veil” (2003-2004) and “Fair Play” (2001-2002).

Al Ani has received several awards, including the Abraaj Capital Art Prize (2011); the East International Award (2001); and the John Kobal Photographic Portrait Award (1996). Her work can be found in public collections including the Tate Gallery, Arts Council England and Imperial War Museum, London; the Pompidou Centre, Paris; the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna; and Darat al Funun – The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman.

In 2005, Film and Video Umbrella published a monograph focusing on her moving image work. Recent publications in which her work is featured include “Site-Writing: The Architecture of Art Criticism” (Jane Rendell, IB Taurus, 2011); “Oil and Sugar: Contemporary Art and Islamic Culture” (Glenn Lowry, ICC at the ROM, 2009); “Contemporary British Women Artists: In Their Own Words” (Rebecca Fortnum, I.B.Tauris, 2007); and “Home Works” (Christine Tohme and Mona Abu Rayyan, Ashkal Alwan, 2003).