Resident in the UK, Bean moved to England in 1969 after beginning her art education in South Africa at the University of Cape Town.

[2][3] She was a founding member of the irreverent pseudo pop-band Moody and the Menstruators (1971–74),[4] which was imagined by the artist as an exploration of the boundaries between art and music.

PAVES was a collaborative project between artists Anne Bean, Sinead O'Donnell, Poshya Kakl, Efi Ben-David and Vlasta Delimar that spanned England, Scotland, Ireland, Israel, Croatia and Palestine.

[11] Bean spent 16 months living as Chana in Newark, a small town in England, and produced a series of artworks that were exhibited at the 2013 Venice Biennale.

[12] In 2019, a solo exhibition was held by England & Co in London: Anne Bean: How Things Used to Now incorporated painting, sculpture, photography, film and live performance.