Nabil Anani was born in Latroun in 1943 and graduated in Fine Art from Alexandra University, Egypt in 1969. On completing his studies, Anani returned to Palestine and began a fruitful career as an artist and a teacher trainer at the UN training college in Ramallah.

Anani is a multi-talented artist - a painter, a ceramicist and a sculptor. He pioneered the use of local media such as leather, henna, natural dyes, Papier-mâché, wood, beads and copper. Anani draws inspiration from the land of Palestine and its people and has built an impressive catalogue of outstanding and unique art over the past four decades.

Anani held his first exhibition in Jerusalem in 1972 and has since exhibited widely in Europe, North America, the Middle East, North Africa and Japan – both individually and with groups of his Palestinian contemporaries. Recent solo exhibitions include Journey into Script, London, 2007 and Spirit of the Land, Beirut, 2013.

Anani was awarded the first Palestinian National Prize for Visual Art in 1997 and became the head of the League of Palestinian Artists in 1998. On retiring from his teaching post in 2003, Anani has dedicated much of his time to voluntary pastimes, leading on the League’s activities and playing a key role in the establishment of the first International Academy of Fine Art in Palestine – with the assistance of the University of Oslo and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.