Vanessa Monfreda was born in Valparaiso, Chile in 1970. Her mother, Chilean; her father, half-Chilean, half-Austrian. From age 2 to 16, she was raised in Germany, followed by 10 years in Quito, Ecuador. She immigrated to Indianapolis, Indiana in 1997.

The excess of junk mail and American consumerism feed her obsession with collage and recycle art. Her work is a fusion of South American flavor, German Dada and Minimalist Pop.