Born in 1939 in El Paso, Texas, Jaramillo spent her formative years in California before moving to Europe and settling in New York City in late 1960s. Central to a career spanning six decades is Jaramillo’s drive to express materially our sensory perceptions of space and time in what she describes as "an aesthetic investigation which seeks to translate into visual terms the mental structural patterns we all superimpose on our world." Whether creating bold abstract paintings, sculptural mixed media compositions or meticulously formed handmade paper works, Jaramillo has forged a unique voice, experimenting with material and process to pursue her ongoing explorations of human perception of reality.

Jaramillo's work was featured in Tate Modern's blockbuster exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, London, UK (2017); which subsequently toured to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, AR, USA; Brooklyn Museum, NY, USA; and the Broad, CA, USA; de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA, USA; and The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX, USA (2018-2020). In 2017, Jaramillo exhibited in We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women 1965-85 at Brooklyn Museum, NY, USA; which toured to Californian African American Museum, CA, USA; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, NY, USA; and Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, MA, USA (2018). In 2021 Jaramillo was also included in the touring exhibition Women in Abstraction at Centre Pompidou, Paris, France and Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain. The first major retrospective exhibition of Jaramillo's work, Virginia Jaramillo: Principles of Equivalence, was on view at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art through August 2023. Selected public collections include the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Guggenheim Museum, NY; Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, AR; Brooklyn Museum, NY; The Mexican Museum, CA; Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, CT; Dallas Museum of Art, TX; El Paso Museum of Art, TX; Kemper Museum, MO; Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, KS; The Menil Collection, Houston, TX; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA; the Peréz Art Museum, Miami, FL; and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, among others.