Cui Xiaodong was born in Jinzhou city, Liaoning Province, China in 1964 After graduating in oil painting from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1990, Cui took a three year teaching post at the Gulin Education Institute, Guangxi He went on to receive his Master’s degree in 1996 in oil painting from the China Academy of Fine Arts, where he currently teaches In 1995 he won the Ruo Zhongli prize for oil painting and the following year bronze at the Oil Painting Exhibition of China Art Gallery 1997 saw him win Gold in the China Art Exhibition and in 1998, he was awarded at the Chinese Youth Oil Painting Exhibition Cui also achieved the highest prize in Figurative and Naturalistic painting at the Sino-Japan Expo In 1999, he won a prize at the 9th National Art Expo, as well as the Lu Xun Literature Artistic Award and was invited to take part in ‘Contemporary Realism’ - an exhibition in San Francisco