Born in Buenos Aires in 1941, Liliana Porter studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires (1954–58) and the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City (1958–61). She has lived in New York since 1964. Her multifaceted work comprises printmaking, paintings, drawings, and time-based media as well as installations and public art projects. In 1964 she and Luis Camnitzer (b. 1937), her then husband, together with the Venezuelan printmaker José Guillermo Castillo (1938–1999), founded the experimental New York Graphic Workshop, active until 1970, which promoted the destruction and disposability of the art object through the creation of FANDSO (Free, Assemblage, Nonfunctional, Disposable, Serial Object). Among her most celebrated early works was a series of photo engravings and installations of sheets that blurred obvious distinctions between object and image and cemented Porter's reputation as an important early exponent of conceptualism.

In 1973, Porter was invited by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City to do a Project Room. In 1991,  The Bronx Museum of the Arts held a retrospective exhibition of her work. She also has had solo exhibitions at Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, the Phoenix Art Museum, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), and many other institutions throughout Europe, Latin America, and the United States. In 2017 Porter’s work was included in Viva Arte Viva, La Biennale di Venezia, 57th International Art Exhibition in Italy and she debuted Domar al leon y otras dudas, her third theatrical production in June at the 2nd Bienal de Performance, Parque de la Memoria in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Selected exhibitions include: Reality Play at Les Abattoirs, Musee d’Art Contemporain, Toulouse, France (2023); Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY (2022); El Museo de Barrio, New York; Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, (2019); Brooklyn Museum, NY; Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), FL(2018); Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA (2017); Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales (MNAV), Montevideo, Uruguay (2015); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), MA (2014); Museo de Arte de Zapopan (MAZ), Guadalajara, Mexico; Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Argentina (2013); , Georgia State University, Atlanta (2005); Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2003); Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, The University of Texas at Austin; Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY (1992).