1968年生于湖南，1991年毕业于中央美术学院油画系，生活和工作在南京。作为中国最具代表性的肖像画家之一，毛焰以其细腻而有着微妙意趣的笔法描绘出一幅幅静默的日常面孔，引领观者进入免受时代速度干扰的凝思时刻。他曾被批评家栗宪庭誉为中国新写实主义的代表人物，在过去的近三十年间持续探索肖像绘画在当代的表达潜力，近期创作中由具象、抽象绘画与诗歌共同构筑，以极具辨识度的技法刻画着时代表象后的人类共性的精神世界。
他的个展曾展出于松美术馆、成都复星艺术中心、坪山美术馆、南京艺术学院美术馆、瑞士日内瓦ART & PUBLIC、上海美术馆、佩斯画廊等。毛焰的作品曾展出于巴西圣保罗国家美术馆、比利时布鲁塞尔BEIVUE 美术馆上海星美术馆、北京民生现代美术馆、深圳华侨城当代艺术中心OCAT、北京今日美术馆、上海民生a现代美术馆等。他的作品被香港M+博物馆、上海美术馆、深圳美术馆、上海宝龙美术馆、香港大学美术博物馆、上海余德耀艺术基金会、上海星美术馆、北京中央美术学院美术馆、上海龙美术馆等多家知名艺术机构、美术馆及收藏基金会收藏。
Born in 1968 in Hunan, China. He graduated from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (China) in 1991. He currently lives and works in Nanjing. As one of the most prominent painters specializing in portraits in China, Mao captures silent everyday faces with delicate and subtle brushstrokes, inviting viewers into a moment of contemplation, free from change. Critic Li Xianting has praised him as a representative painter of Chinese neo-realism. For nearly three decades, Mao has continuously explored the expressive nature of portrait painting in the contemporary era. In his recent works, he composes figurative and abstract paintings with poetry, using his signature techniques to depict the spiritual world of humanity behind each face.
Mao’s solo exhibitions have been held at Song Art Museum (Beijing), Fosun Art Center (Chengdu), Pingshan Art Museum (Shenzhen), Nanjing University of the Arts Art Museum (Nanjing), Geneva ART & PUBLIC (Geneva), Shanghai Art Museum (Shanghai), Pace Gallery (New York, Beijing, London), etc. His works have been exhibited in the National Museum of Fine Arts (Sao Paulo), BEIVUE Museum (Brussels), Star Art Museum (Shanghai), Minsheng Art Museum (Beijing), OCAT Contemporary Art Center (Shenzhen), Today Art Museum (Beijing), Minsheng Art Museum (Shanghai), etc. His works are collected by the M+ Art Museum, Shanghai Art Museum, Shenzhen Art Museum, Shanghai Powerlong Art Museum, Art Museum of the University of Hong Kong, Yuz Art Foundation, Star Art Museum, Art Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and Long Museum.
