Pan Gongkai is an internationally renowned artist, theoretician, and educator with honorary PhDs from the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, and the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He is the current president of the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and a former president of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou.

Pan’s ink paintings embody not only the essence of traditional Chinese literati painting but also modern aesthetics; as such, they exemplify the modern transformation of traditional Chinese ink and wash painting. His painting exhibitions have been held in Paris at the UNESCO headquarters and major art museums in Beijing, Taipei, Hong Kong, Macau, New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo. His large-scale digital installation was featured at the ZKM in Germany and the 54th Venice Biennale. Currently, he has a museum solo exhibition at the Frye Art Museum.

Pan is an author of many publications, which include: History of Painting in China, Limit and Exploration, Analysis of Pan Tianshou’s Painting Skill, and On Pan Tianshou’s Life and Art. Pan is also an active researcher. Since 2002, he has directed comprehensive research on modern Chinese art titled The Road of Chinese Modern Art, the results of which were published in 2012 and are now critically influencing Chinese scholarship on the liberal arts.