Guo Jin was born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in China. He graduated in 1990 from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts Oil Painting Department and now teaches in the Sichuan Academy of Fine Art in Chongqing. He has participated in such note-worthy exhibitions as China Avant-Garde (1993), Faces and Bodies from the Middle Kingdom (1993), as well as exhibition throughout Europe and mainland China. He is the brother of Guo Wei, another noted contemporary artist.

Known principally for The Happy Children series he began in 1996, his work, both in content and colour palette, reflect the vulnerability and melancholy of his own childhood. His pieces are often large in scale and governed by soft colours and an effervescent mood.  Using brushwork that highlights the medium of oil on canvas, his paintings, in their very nature as physical objects, force a confrontation between reality and dream.