Zhong Biao was born in Chongqing in 1968 and graduated from the Department of Oil Painting at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now the China Academy of Art) in 1991. He currently serves as Chairman of the Chongqing Artists Association; a member of the Oil Painting Art Committee of the China Artists Association; a council member of the China Oil Painting Society; Deputy Director of the Public Art Expert Committee of the China Construction Culture and Art Association; Executive President of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute Alumni Association; and Professor at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute.
Zhong has held 32 solo exhibitions across 11 countries and participated in more than 500 thematic group exhibitions and international biennials in over 30 countries. His works are held in the collections of more than 30 art museums worldwide, while his work and critical commentary have been included in 16 publications on Chinese art history. His publications include Manifestation: Zhong Biao’s World of Images and Zhong Biao: The Universe of Unreality.
His awards include the 2025 Outstanding Asian Artist Award from the US magazine Asian Art; the President’s Special Award at the 15th Florence Biennale in 2025; an Award of Merit from the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) of North America in 2020; Second Prize at the 14th China Lighting Awards in 2019; Robb Report’s China Artist of the Year in 2016; Harper’s Bazaar Men’s Innovative Art Personality of the Year in China in 2010; and an Award of Excellence at the 10th National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 2004.
Citation for the 2025 Distinguished Artist Award, Asian Art (USA)
Through a sustained and exploratory painting practice, Zhong Biao has developed an important artistic language marked by conceptual force, visual complexity, and spiritual dimension. Through an evolving visual vocabulary, he forges profound connections among lived reality, subjectivity, and cosmic order, reconstructing the cognitive depth and expressive boundaries of painting across multiple temporalities and energetic structures.