Born in Shanghai in 1958, Chen Yanyin currently lives and works in Shanghai. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Sculpture Department of the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now the China Academy of Art) in 1988 and subsequently worked at the Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute for many years, where she served as the Sculpture Director. In 2000, she earned a master’s degree from the Sydney College of the Arts.

For decades, as a full-time artist at the Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Institute, Chen has created numerous public sculptures that align with the aesthetics of socialist realism, receiving multiple official accolades. At the same time, she has also created a series of highly avant-garde conceptual works, boldly presenting and exploring the lived experiences of being a woman. Chen’s remembrance and nostalgia on her mother are also an important theme in her work.

Chen Yanyin’s works have been widely exhibited in museums and art institutions around the world. Notable exhibitions she has participated in include ’95 Women’s Art Show (a three-person exhibition featuring Li Xiuqin, Chen Yanyin, and Jiang Jie) at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1995; Shanghai First International Fax Art Exhibition in 1996; The 2nd Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Australia in 1997; Half of the Sky, a group exhibition at the Frauen Museum in Bonn, Germany, in 1998; The 3rd Shanghai Biennale at the Shanghai Art Museum in 2000; and The First Guangzhou Triennial at the Guangdong Museum of Art in 2003.