Guigen Zha was born in Nanjing, China, in 1970.  Graduated from Changshu Institute of Technology in 1993, Zha worked as art teacher, animation artist, and graphic designer for many years in Shanghai and Shenzhen before continued his formal education in the United States with a BFA from Missouri State University in 2014.  He is currently a MFA candidate in painting at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Zha’s paintings have been selected for many exhibitions and awards in 2017 and early 2018, for example, the Second Asian Art Biennial in Hong Kong; Harmony: Contemporary Chinese Exhibition of Small Oil Paintings in Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum; Winner of the 50th Creative Quarterly International Art Competition in New York; and the Zhou B Spirit Award at the National Wet Paint MFA Biennial 2018 in Chicago.