Chagoya says of his work, "My artwork is a conceptual fusion of opposite cultural realities....I integrate diverse elements: from pre-Columbian mythology, western iconography and American popular culture."

Chagoya is currently Associate Professor of Art at Stanford University. In July 2000, a retrospective exhibition, "Locked in Paradise", was on view at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. Chagoya's work is in the collections of The LA County Museum, The National Museum of American Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, and The New York Public Library.