Today we’d like to introduce you to Ana Sneeringer.
Hi Ana, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was born in Slovenia, Europe and began my professional life as a journalist and tv director. After moving abroad, I lived in several countries ( Jordan, France, Russia, The Dominican Republic, The Netherlands, India and now USA), and each place changed the way I understood identity, belonging, and what it means to feel at home.
I began painting in 2011 while living in the Dominican Republic, not because I had planned to become an artist, but because I needed somewhere to place the thoughts and emotions I could not easily explain. As I continued moving around the world, painting became the one constant in my life.
Over time, it developed into a serious practice. I taught myself through experimentation, persistence, and years of daily work. Today, I create figurative paintings that explore women’s inner authority, vulnerability, resilience, and the complicated search for belonging. My work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private and institutional collections, but I still approach each painting with the same curiosity that made me begin: trying to understand something I cannot fully express in words.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. Because I am self-taught, I had to find my own way without a traditional art education or an established network within the art world. I learned through years of experimentation, rejection, persistence, and, at times, uncertainty about whether I was moving in the right direction.
Living in nine different countries also brought challenges. Each move meant rebuilding my life, adapting to a new culture, and often trying to create while raising a family and managing the demands of everyday life. At times, I felt as though I belonged everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
One of the greatest struggles has been learning to trust my own voice, especially in an industry where there is constant pressure to follow trends, explain yourself, or fit into a particular category. But those difficulties also shaped my work. They taught me resilience and gave me a deeper understanding of identity, vulnerability, and belonging, which are now at the heart of my paintings.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a figurative artist working primarily in oil, and playing with “romantic” surrealism. I create psychologically layered paintings that explore women’s inner lives, particularly identity, belonging, vulnerability, resilience, and the authority we carry within ourselves.
My work is known for bold color, constructed spaces, and unexpected symbolic objects. Women often appear alongside long gloves, pearls, animals, or ordinary objects placed in unusual situations. These elements are not there to provide one fixed explanation. They create tension and invite viewers to bring their own memories and experiences into the painting.
What sets my work apart is the combination of emotional honesty and cultural fluidity. Living in all those countries, I do not see identity as something fixed. My paintings bring together fragments of different places, cultures, memories, and personal experiences, creating worlds that feel recognizable but are not tied to one specific location.
I am most proud that I built this practice independently and remained committed to my own visual language, even when the path was uncertain. I am also proud that my paintings have connected with people across cultures and have been exhibited and collected internationally. For me, the greatest achievement is when someone recognizes part of their own story in a world that came entirely from mine.
What’s next?
My immediate focus is a new body of work that pushes my paintings further psychologically. I am exploring how control and freedom, strength and vulnerability, and masculine and feminine energies can exist within the same person.
I am especially looking forward to exhibiting two paintings with D Contemporary in London, UK beginning October 9, 2026. This feels like an important step in developing stronger relationships with galleries, curators, and collectors internationally.
Looking further ahead, I want to continue creating ambitious bodies of work, exhibiting in new places, and expanding the audience for my paintings without losing the honesty that shaped them. The biggest change is not a departure from what I have been doing, but a deeper commitment to it by trusting my visual language, taking greater risks, and allowing the work to become more complex.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.anasneeringer.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ana_sneeringer
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apiljic/
