Bio

Kani is a visual artist and researcher working primarily with human hair and voice. Born and raised in Iraq, she is currently based in London and is a member of the Community Arts Network.

Her work confronts the ongoing social and political systems of abuse within Iraqi Kurdish society, using deeply personal materials, particularly hair and voice, to expose, embody, and challenge hidden societal issues. Through her practice, Kani explores untold stories, unrecorded histories, and silenced experiences. By translating and decoding these narratives into artistic form, she uses art as a method of social critique, investigating structures of power and revealing what often remains unrevealed.

A key element in her work is listening, both as a practice and as a form of resistance. Human hair serves as her central material, acting as a site of entanglement where memory, gender politics, cultural taboo, and personal protest converge. Her work spans across photography, installation, video performance, and sound, often layering the intimate with the political.

Kani holds an MA in Fine Art from Middlesex University, London, where she studied under artist Sonia Boyce. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Fine Art at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Education

  • 2026 — PhD (Fine Art), Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester

  • 2013 — MA (Fine Art), Middlesex University, London

  • 2006 — BA (Fine Art – Ceramics), University of Sulaimani, College of Fine Art, Iraq

Collective Exhibitions & Performances

Upcoming exhibition:

  • Powerful textures. Language in textiles, Klingspor Museum, Germany.

2026

  • Listen to Kurdistan (Reference Point Cafe, IKLECTIK Art Lab, Cafe OTO), London.

2025

2024

2023

  • Traces of Displacement, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

  • Process and Practice, Manchester Metropolitan University

  • Fixing What’s Broken, Apartment Project Gallery, Berlin

2022

2021

2020

  • Making Spaces, Research project with the Feminist Space group, University of Huddersfield

  • Girlhood and Later Life, Research project by Prof. Penny Tinkler and Dr. Jenna Ashton, University of Manchester. Link to my work

  • Let the Flame Precede You, Kurdish group exhibition, Arsenal Gallery, Poland (curated by Aneta Szylak)

  • Pot-holder Project, Commissioned by Kirklees Council with women in exile, Huddersfield & Dewsbury Women’s Centres

2019

  • Speaking Across Mountains, Middle East Institute, Washington D.C. (curated by Heba Elkayal)

  • Everyday Object, Collaborative project with University of Huddersfield & University of Salford (part of The Listening Guide conference on Feminist Narrative Research)

  • Hull International Photography Festival, HIP Gallery, Hull

  • Disclosure Up North, Photography exhibition, Mirabel Studios, Manchester

  • Feminist Space, Collaborative project with University of Huddersfield & Women’s Centre, Huddersfield

  • The Shuffle Orchestra, Performance with Tarek Atoui at The Calder, Hepworth Wakefield (part of Yorkshire Sculpture International)

  • Cohere, V&A Museum, London and HOME, Manchester (produced by Geoff Brokate and curated by Nina Emmett)

2018

  • Still, I Rise, Directed by Yusra Warsama, Manchester Art Gallery

  • Thread Bearing Witness, Group show of The Travelling Heritage Bureau artists, curated by Alice Kettle, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

  • A Room of One’s Own, The Alexandria Library, Manchester (curated by Jenna C. Ashton)

  • Slowness, TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art, Szczecin, Poland (curated by Aneta Szylak)

  • The Travelling Heritage Bureau, HOME Gallery, Manchester (curated by Jenna C. Ashton)

2017

  • Contemporary Visions | Video Art in Loop, Worldwide exhibition (curated by Roberto Ronca)

2016

  • Clamor, Institute of Fine Art, Sulaimani, Iraq (curated by Sherko Abbas)

  • Group Show, Kurdish House, London (curated by Kosha Hussain)

  • Homunculus, Asylum Chapel, London (curated by Rikha Samir)

  • Arising, Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland (curated by Yoko Ono; featuring women’s testaments and eye photography)

2015

2014

  • When the Wild Instrument Sings, Sound performance initiated by Sherko Abbas, Goldsmiths, University of London

  • Her Used Boots and Panties, Vyner Street Gallery, London

  • Sexism, Indra and Samia Gallery, London

  • Stop the War, Indra and Samia Gallery, London

2013

  • MA Fine Art Show, Middlesex University, London

  • Eye-Eye, Mile End Art Pavilion, London (curated by Jeremy Akerman)

  • Out of This World, Student show, Middlesex University (curated by Farhana Hussain & Michelle Brown)

2011

  • Sculpture & Ceramics Group Show, Erbil, Iraq

  • 4th Fine Art Festival, University of Sulaimani, Iraq

2009

  • International Women’s Day Exhibition, Tawar Hall, Sulaimani, Iraq

Scholarships & Fellowships

  • 2022, Artist-in-Residence Fellowship, Fix What’s Broken, Academy in Exile, Freie Universität Berlin

  • 2011, Research Scholarship to study MA Fine Art, Middlesex University, London

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