Vivian Suter was born in Buenos Aires in 1949 to exiled European parents. Her father owned a textile printing plant, while her mother, Elisabeth Wild, was an artist. When she was 12, during the Peròn regime, her family relocated to Basel, Switzerland, where she studied painting. in 1982, shortly after her first major group exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel, she traveled through the USA and Latin America, and the following year, she settled in Panajachel, Guatemala, near the lake Atitlan. The local atmosphere, climate, vegetation, and animals became the central concerns in her work. 

Her most notable exhibitions up to now include Kunstmuseum Olten, 2004; Kunsthalle Basel and São Paulo Biennial, 2014; documenta 14, Athens and Kassel, 2017; Power Plant, Toronto, 2018; the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019; Camden Art Centre, London, 2020; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid and Kunstmuseum Luzern, 2021; MAAT, Lisbon, 2024; Moderna Museet, Malmö and Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2025.