Anna Guarneri is a Philadelphia-based visual artist who works in various media, including drawing, painting, and stained glass. Guarneri’s work explores the possibilities of suggestive, nonliteral imagery.  She uses crude marks and associations to tap into early human experience, pulling from a range of sources - ancient art, architecture, dance history, and her own body.  Originally from Oakland, California, Guarneri received a bachelor's degree in cultural history from the University of Pennsylvania and studied art at Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, Washington. Since 2020, she has exhibited work at galleries in Washington, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. 

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Self-portraits ("Venus" figurines)

Guarneri's ongoing series of 4x5 inch self-portraits draw inspiration from Upper Paleolithic “Venus” figurines, some of the earliest examples of figurative art.  While the figurines were long thought to be fertility symbols or fetish objects, an alternative theory is that they were self-portraits made by women looking down at their own bodies.  The series explores variations on the female nude with a playful, revisionist lens.