Ana Benaroya (b. 1986) is an artist born in New York and raised in New Jersey. She received her MFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Yale School of Art in 2019. From a queer perspective, Benaroya’s work explores notions of power and desire by exaggerating and distorting the human body, playing with its form, and its relationship to other bodies. She draws from the languages of comics, caricature, and pop culture and is influenced by images of bodybuilders, cartoons, gig-posters, and artists such as Tom of Finland, Robert Colescott, the Chicago Imagists as well as children’s artwork. Music and song lyrics often appear in the titles of her works. Benaroya’s work utilizes the subversive power of humor to create an image that at first glance might seem funny and appealing to the eye but upon closer examination, reveals a darker, more serious nature.