Catalina Parra

In 2000, Parra was given the position of Agregada Cultural de Chile en Argentina (Aggregate of Culture of Chile in Argentina), she worked in this position until 2009, when she once again returned to New York, where she currently resides.

During this time she created pieces including Coming your way (Banff, 1994), The Human touch (1989) and Here, there, everywhere (1992). In these works, Parra critically examines military interventions as well as the empty promises of financial institutions and capitalist consumer society. She is most well known for her visual work USA, Where Liberty is a Statue (1987), a thirty-second video that was played on the Spectacolor billboard in Times Square as part of the Public Art Fund project titled Messages to the Public (1982–1990). The art consisted of an animation using the words of her father, the Chilean poet Nicanor Parra. The piece questions the idealized American vision of freedom and liberty. In 1996, Parra's work was included in the exhibition Latin American Women Artists, 1915-1995.

In 1990, Parra taught as an artist-in-residence at El Museo del Barrio, an art school in New York dedicated to teaching varying forms of art to disadvantaged youths. Parra was also recognized in the Latin American Women Artist Association, primarily for her role in educating disadvantaged youths and promoting minority rights. In 1995, Parra received a fellowship from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in New York City.

In 1980, Parra received a Guggenheim Fellowship from John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, which allowed her to move to New York City in the United States. During her time in the United States she used American mass media as her new material.

Her most popular works are the Imbunches (1977), No Moaning. No Complaining. No Rehab. Just Laughs.(1999), and It's Indisputable (1992) collections, all of which feature multiple different collages revolving around a common theme – political, social, and economic issues. No Moaning. No Complaining. No Rehab. Just Laughs. is a work that encompasses her personal expression of the Chilean government through her newspaper clipping showing General Augusto Pinochet and Hugo Banzer of Bolivia hugging. This work addresses the possibility of strong relationships between and or within countries. The current event at the time (shown by the newspaper clipping) was the arrest of General Augusto Pinochet, former dictator of Chile, for a request issued by the government of Spain for the murder of Spanish citizens during his dictatorship. His role in the Caravan of Death was also prominent, as the event occurred while he was ruling. So although it does have deeper meaning, it also displays the fact that she was rebelling against his ideas and beliefs through the desecration of his figure in her work. Her collection Run Away, Run Away also examines the switch from dictatorship to democracy because of the actions of Pinochet and gives voice to many Chilean citizens. Through ads and titles created by The New York Times, Parra's collage collection attempts to show the emotions of the general's supporters and opponents. This work features Pinochet's face torn in half and "sewn" back together in the set of nine mixed media collages. Run Away, Run Away was a response to the legal attempts at Pinochet's past deeds and provided her views on this passionate issue. Her indirect views and art, as she had intended, gives the subliminal message to its viewers about the multiple topics she covers because she actually was at risk of being imprisoned upon proper interpretation of her antigovernment propaganda.

Catalina Parra was born in Santiago, Chile to famous poet Nicanor Parra and his wife. Violeta Parra, her aunt, was also in the arts - she was a visual artist. Nicanor Parra, however, was most influential to Catalina and offered his liberal and political views on many subjects, which is primarily how Catalina views many subjects today. Catalina moved to Germany in 1968 when she was twenty-eight, but moved back to Chile five years later in 1973 during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, who ruled until 1990. She then trekked to New York City in 1980 due to his oppression and has lived there ever since. These locations have shaped her artistic ability and style through the political, social, and economic movements that occurred while she was residing in each area.

Catalina Parra (born May 9, 1940) is a self-taught Chilean artist, famous for her works It's Indisputable (1992) and Imbunches (1977). Parra is a strong feminist, humanist, and advocates for social and political change through her art. "Art doesn't have a gender", she says.