Born in Iraq, Jananne Al-Ani currently lives and works in London. 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. Al-Ani's early work explores the construction of beauty and the representation of the body in Western art and her work continues to be influenced by her interest in the fetishised female form in Orientalist painting and photography.

Memory and word games act as a starting point for many of Al-Ani's recent video works. In 'A Loving Man' (1996-9), five women play a memory game, the components of which are phrases based upon each woman's relationship with the 'loving man' of the title. 'A Loving Man' was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum and subsequently shown in East International 2000 where Al-Ani was the joint winner of the East Award. The same focus on the construction of narrative and the idea of language as a source of both knowledge and misunderstanding is apparent in 'She Said' (2000). Commissioned by the New Art Gallery Walsall, this five screen video installation is distinguished by Al-Ani's characteristically concise and minimal formal language.

In addition to her work as Curatorial Assistant for Autograph, the Association of Black Photographers, Al-Ani has been active in organising exhibitions and events independently. She recently co-curated the show 'Fair Play' with the artist Frances Kearney at Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art and she is currently working, in collaboration with Autograph, the African and Asian Visual Artists Archive and the Institute of International Visual Arts, towards the production of a major exhibition of contemporary works concerned with the veil.