Bo Tan was born in 1959 in Dalian, China. In 1982, he graduated from the oil painting department of Luxun Academy of Fine arts in Shenyang then stayed on the teach for the following 14 years. He has been recognized as an associate professor at the school and he is a member of both the Chinese Artists Association and the Chinese Oil Painting Committee.

​

Bo has been a proud West Texas resident for over two decades and he has now established a professional gallery and studio space close to downtown Lubbock. He has continuously strive to polish his work as a painter while contributing to the local art community by showing his work at LUHCA and other various curated art exhibitions. In addition to being an experienced art professor, Bo is an expert when it comes to traditional representational paintings, in particular– oil portraiture. Notably, he was commissioned by the John Ben Shepperd Institute in Odessa to paint the portraits of president Donald Trump in 2018 for their presidential archive.