Arriving in the United States as a political exile from her homeland of Cuba, Guerra and her family carried their memories of light and color from their native land. The surface and saturation remains the predominant first impression of her paintings and on further examination, layers and burnished surfaces are revealed. First and foremost a painter, Guerra also works with clay and creates ceramics - the mediums inform one another.
Ana Guerra graduated, with honors, in painting and printmaking, from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1974. Prior to RISD, Guerra was trained at the Corcoran Gallery School of Art, Washington, DC.