Yikui Gu was born in 1983 in Shanghai, China and emigrated to the United States at the age of seven, growing up in Albany, NY. He has a BFA from Long Island University and an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He has exhibited his work nationally in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and St. Louis; and internationally in London, Berlin, and Siena, Italy. His work has been reviewed in KunstForum International in Berlin, and in the Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as appearing on the cover of the Lower East Side Review and Fresh Paint Magazine. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Art Library (NYC) and the Siena Art Institute (Siena, Italy). He resides in Philadelphia and teaches as an Associate Professor of Studio Art at the College of Southern Maryland. In his time off he enjoys traveling, good Belgian beers, and keeping up to date as a sneakerhead. The bulk of his time, however, is spent in the studio where he is currently plotting his takeover of the international art world, while remaining mostly harmless.