Mao Yan was born in Xiangtan, Hunan Province. He graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1991. Selected Exhibitions: 1992, "Mao Yan!'s Drawings", Nanjing; 1995, "Contemporary Chinese Oil Painters", Museum of the Chinese Overseas Newspaper, Los Angeles; 1996, "Shanghai Biennial", Shanghai; 1997, "Paintings by Mao Yan", Nanjing Pinge Art House; "One Hundred Years of Chinese Portraiture", Beijing; 2000, "Mao Yan & Liu Ye, Chinese Contemporary", London; 2001, "Towards a New Image: 20 Years of Contemporary Chinese Painting", an exhibition that toured through the National Gallery, Beijing, Shanghai Art Museum, Sichuan Province Art Museum; "Chengdu Biennial", Chengdu Modern Art Museum, Chengdu; 2003, "The Same of Difference", Duolun Art Museum, Shanghai; 2005, "illness: Art of Our Times", Nanjing Art Museum, Nanjing; 2006, "Exchange Exhibition of Contemporary Oil Painting Collectors", Aye Gallery, Beijing; 2009, "Mao Yan Solo Exhibition", Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai.