Leng Jun (family name Leng) was born on July 15, 1963, in Dazhu County, Sichuan Province, China. His father was a ground staff member of the Air Force, and his mother was a Sichuan opera performer in her early years. Later, she followed her husband to Wuhan, where she became a homemaker.


In a 2025 interview, Leng stated: “I liked to draw since I was very young. I didn't get into a science university, so I switched to learning to do art. My interest in painting seems to be innate, without any specific motivating event.” “In 1976, with the help of my neighbors, I was introduced to a teacher, an oil painter, who acted as my mentor; at that time, I was particularly fond of Chinese painting and would often visit the teacher's workplace to observe others painting Chinese paintings, but the teacher insisted that I focus on drawing sketches instead. I was only able to secretly practice Chinese painting and calligraphy.”

In 1984 Leng enrolled in Wuhan Normal College, Hankou Branch, a two-year teacher’s college looking to becoming a teacher for “physical education, music, and art”. He studied mainly Chinese painting and calligraphy. About that period of his life he states: “At that time, I didn't have any specific plans; I was assigned to work as an art teacher at a secondary vocational school, where I taught while also painting, and before long, I had reached a certain level of proficiency.” When asked about artists that inspired him, he replied: “There are many artists I like! Most of them are Chinese classical painters, but also Westerners like medieval altarpiece painters, and contemporary artists such as Rothko, de Kooning, and Pollock.”

Leng Jun’s is largely self-taught, as he says, his interest (talent) seems “largely innate”. His journey in art started with paintings in the classical Chinese manner, landscapes, clumps of bamboo, etc. and occasionally, in an impressionistic Western style. But, in 2012 he abandoned those for hyperrealism, a technique in which he would become the greatest living practitioner, attested to by recent auction prices for his works: his Mona Lisa of 2004, sold at auction in 2021 for $10.8M USD. His Portrait of Xiao Jiang of 2011 sold at auction in 2019 for $8.7M USD. In 2018, Leng Jun was awarded an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University.

His works are in the Long Museum (Pudong), Shanghai; Today Art Museum, Beijing; CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, and in many private collections. Leng Jun shares his time between China and the USA.

Source/Submitted by Rex Rivolo, based on interviews with the artist (July 2025)

Leng Jun was born in 1963 in Sichuan, and graduated from the Department of Art, Wuhan Teachers College, where he is appointed as the President. Furthermore, he is also a National first-class artist. His works have not only been exhibited worldwide, won several national awards, but also been widely collected. What features Leng Jun's art is that extremely realist technique. He draws every part of the painting in such detailed exquisiteness that the work reaches to a perfect wholeness, delivering pounding strength to audience. Through realistic technique, Leng Jun well depicts human's characteristic, and it seems that every viewer is awed by watching Leng Jun's delicate art pieces. In all, he has become one of the most influential artists in Chinese contemporary art.