1955 年出生于上海，在文化大革命期间，他生长于一个讲法语的医学家庭，家住前法租界。很小的时候，他就对中国传统哲学与西方文化之间的联系产生了兴趣。他于 1973 年就读于上海工艺美术学校，1976 年开始任教，1978 年进入上海戏剧学院，主修布景设计，1982 年成为教授。
25 岁时，陈箴患上不治之症——溶血性贫血，这段经历让他对时间和空间的价值有了深刻的洞察，并具备了很强的分析能力。
1986 年，陈箴来到法国继续他的艺术学习，但在那里，他经历了文化冲击。他把绘画放在一边，专注于装置艺术。他在巴黎国立高等美术学院学习，1989 年进入法国高等造型艺术学院，1993 年成为该学院的助理教授。此后，他的作品根据跨文化思想流派发展起来，艺术家将这一概念称为“跨体验”，基于人、消费社会和自然之间的关系。
在他去世前大约两年，这位艺术家决定学习传统中医，认为中医涉及一种非常接近他自己对艺术的看法的思维和行为方式。他在最后的作品中转化和提炼了这些知识，这些作品涉及身体与精神、人与宇宙之间的对话。
陈箴于 2000 年 12 月 13 日去世。他开放的态度和作品的质量为他赢得了广泛的国际认可。他的作品已在世界各地展出，并在一些重要的博物馆和机构举办过个人回顾展：2001 年伦敦蛇形画廊； 2002 年雅典国立现代美术馆和波士顿当代艺术馆；2003 年纽约 P.S.1 当代艺术中心和巴黎东京宫；2007 年维也纳艺术馆；2008 年罗韦雷托 MART；2015 年上海外滩美术馆和 2020 年米兰倍耐力 Hangar Bicocca。
1990 年至 2000 年间，他获得了法国和美国艺术机构的六项资助，并参加了以下重要展览：《陈箴与画廊》，Le Magasin – CNAC，格勒诺布尔，1992 年；《忏悔之光》，乌得勒支中央博物馆，1994 年；《废弃之地》，纽约新当代艺术博物馆，1994 年； 《和平对话》，日内瓦联合国宫，1995 年；《土地的宁静：日常生活、当代艺术和震颤》，波士顿当代艺术中心，1997 年；《艺术家的项目》，P.S.1 博物馆重新开放展，P.S.1 艺术中心，纽约，1997 年；《Jue Chang / 五十下笔》，特拉维夫艺术博物馆，1998 年；《移动的城市》，路易斯安那当代艺术博物馆，亨勒贝克，1999 年；《黑魔法颂歌 - 黑魔法颂歌》，都灵当代艺术博物馆，2000 年。
他参加了各种国际双年展，包括：1997 年的里昂双年展、约翰内斯堡双年展和光州双年展；1998 年的蒙特利尔双年展；以及 1999 年、2007 年和 2009 年的威尼斯双年展。
Born in Shanghai in 1955, Chen Zhen grew up in a French-speaking medical family in the former French Concession area during the Cultural Revolution. At a very young age he became interested in the links between traditional Chinese philosophy and Western culture. He studied at the Shanghai School of Fine Arts and Crafts (1973), where he started teaching in 1976, and later, in 1978, at the Shanghai Drama Institute, where he specialized in set design and became a professor in 1982.
At the age of twenty-five, Chen Zhen was struck by an incurable illness, hemolytic anemia, an experience which gave him vast insight into the value of time and space at a strong analytical level.
On his arrival in France in 1986, where he continued his art studies, Chen Zhen experienced culture shock. He set painting to one side and focused on installation art. He studied in Paris at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and, in 1989, at the Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques, where he became assistant professor in 1993. His work then developed according to a transcultural school of thought, a concept that the artist called ‘Transexpérience’, based on the relationship between Man, consumer society and Nature.
About two years before his death, the artist decided to study traditional Chinese medicine, considering it to involve a way of thinking and behaving very close to his own vision of art. He transformed and distilled this knowledge in his final works dealing with the dialogue between body and spirit, Man and the Universe.
Chen Zhen died on 13 December 2000. His open-minded approach and the quality of his work won him widespread international recognition. His works have been shown around the world, and he has had solo retrospective exhibitions in a number of important museums and institutions: the Serpentine Gallery, London, in 2001; the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens and the ICA, Boston, in 2002; the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in 2003; the Kunsthalle Wien in 2007; MART, Rovereto, in 2008; the Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, in 2015, and the Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, in 2020.
Between 1990 and 2000 he received six grants from French and American art institutions, and took part in major shows such as: Chen Zhen au Magasin, Le Magasin – CNAC, Grenoble, 1992; Light of Confession, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, 1994; Field of Waste, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 1994; Dialogue de Paix, Palais des Nations Unies, Geneva, 1995; The Quiet In The Land: Everyday Life, Contemporary Art and the Shakers, ICA, Boston, 1997; Artists’ Projects, The Re-opening Show of the P.S.1 Museum, P.S.1 Art Center, New York, 1997; Jue Chang / Fifty Strokes to Each, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1998; Cities on the Move, Louisiana Museum of Contemporary Art, Humlebaek, 1999; Chen Zhen, Elogio della Magia Nera - In Praise of Black Magic - Eloge de la Magie Noire, GAM, Turin, 2000.
He participated in various international biennial, including: the Lyon Biennale, Johannesburg Biennale and Gwangju Biennale in 1997; the Montréal Biennale in 1998; and the Venice Biennale in 1999, 2007 and 2009.
