Biography
Gao Qian (b. 1973 in Nanjing, Jiangsu province) graduated from the Traditional Chinese Painting Department of Nanjing University of the Arts with a BA degree in 1995, and obtained her MA degree from the same institution in 1998. In 2016, she received her PhD in Art from the Chinese National Academy of Arts. She previously worked at the Shanghai Art Museum and currently serves as a full-time painter at the Chinese National Academy of Arts, a National First-Class Artist, and a supervisor for master’s and doctoral students. She is also an executive director in the China Gongbi Painting Society and the deputy director of its Flower-and-Bird Painting Art Committee.
As a representative artist of China’s contemporary “New Gongbi” (fine-brush) movement, Gao Qian integrates the aesthetics of Song Dynasty painting with a contemporary feminine perspective. Her work usually reimagines “flowers and birds”—the classical iconography of traditional Chinese art, and stands out for its rare elegant tranquility. Through her distinctive choices in color palette, imagery, and materials, she transcends the established formulas of traditional Gongbi painting, endowing the tradition with new meaning in a contemporary context. Her artworks have been extensively exhibited at prestigious institutions including the National Art Museum of China and the Shanghai Art Museum, and have been featured in international exhibitions across the United States, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.
