Chagoya juxtaposes and combines images sourced from secular and religious iconographies and popular culture to address colonialism, inequality, and international conflicts with biting humor. 

His prints, drawings, paintings, and codices in the tradition of satirical political cartoons have brought him national and international recognition, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Graphics Council International (2021), a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (2021), induction to the National Academy of Design (2020), the Biennial Award from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation (1997), and an artist fellowship and residency in Giverny, France supported by the Lila Wallace Foundation and Foundation Monet (1995), among many others. 

Chagoya is a Professor of Art Practice in the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University, where he has taught since 1995 and is also affiliated with the Center for Latin American Studies in that institution. He began teaching art in the Bay Area at the San Francisco County jail in 1985-86, and curated an exhibition of his students’ work in 1986 at the Galería de la Raza. Chagoya served as artistic director of Galería de la Raza for three years after his curatorial debut and organized many exhibitions, including solo exhibitions of Graciela Iturbide, Ester Hernandez, and Yolanda López, as well as many group exhibitions. Chagoya has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley (1990–91) and at California State University, Hayward (1991–95).