Born in Nanjing, China, Xiaofan Ru has lived and worked in Paris since 1983.

He graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at Nanjing Normal University in 1982 and earned a degree from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1986.

​

Ru was an invited resident artist at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid in 1988 and 1990. His name was included in the Larousse Dictionary of Contemporary Artists (author: Pascale Le Thorel) in 1996.

​

Ru ’s artistic journey is deeply intertwined with his life experience. Having grown up during a time of rapid political, cultural, and economic transformation in mainland China, he later immersed himself in European art and philosophy. Since the early 1980s, his work has been a continuous exploration of the human inner world and the emotional tensions of life.