Dr. Gao Shiming is the president of China Academy of Art. He is the founding chair of CAA's Curatorial Studies Department (the first curatorial program in China), and the founding director of the School of Inter-media Art, Hangzhou. He is also the initiator of the China Institute for Visual Studies, China Institute of Art Education, and the Asian intellectual organization Inter Asia School (IAS). He has curated many exhibitions and intellectual projects, including:

The Migration of Asian Contemporary Art and Geopolitics，2002-2003;

Techniques of the Visible: the 5th Shanghai Biennale，Shanghai，2004;

Farewell to Post-colonialism: the Third Guangzhou Triennial，Guangzhou，2008;

Rehearsal: the 8th Shanghai Biennale，Shanghai，2010;

World in Transition, Imagination in Flux: Asian Circle of Thought Summit，Shanghai，2012;

Reflecta: the First West Bund Biennale for Architecture and Contemporary Art，Shanghai，2013;

Renjian Thoughts Forum: Reports of Asian Social Thought Movements，Beijing，2014;

Forums in Motion: BANDUNG/Third World 60 Years; Shan Shui: A Manifesta，Cochin/Beijing/Tokyo/Hongkong/ Naha/Hangzhou，2015;

The Future Media/Art Manifesto，Strasbourg，2017;

Panel 21: Art / Education in the 21st Century，Beijing，2018;

From/To: the Frontier of Chinese Art Education, San Francisco，2018；

etc.

Gao proposed the educational vision of "College without Walls" and the concept of "Art/Education", advocating to drive education forward with dual engines, namely on-campus and off-campus methods, global and local channels. With the idea of "College as Community, Education as Communication", he was grounded in China and committed to building a network of local colleges and overseas study tours to promote multilateral dialogue between Western and non-Western societies. He established SIMA, the Institute for Collaborative Innovation in Chinese Visual Studies, the National Institute of Art Education, the School of Design & Innovation and other institutes in order to establish a two-way education system that connects inside and outside the institute and the nation. With an interactive teaching system of four dimensions, namely media experimentation, cultural research, art creation, and plan implementation, he expanded the existing landscape of art education and optimized the education model of Chinese contemporary art.

Gao has long been engaged in research on contemporary art and social thought, art education and curatorial practice. He proposed “art with emotion as social thought and part of the social process”, advocating art education with two-way integration of humanities and science, and education initiated from the Chinese land. He has initiated several art education research platforms, such as Panel 21: 21st Century Art/Education Roundtable, and China Art Education Forum (the "Presidents’Forum" of Chinese Art Colleges).

He proposed an "Asian vision" for the study of contemporary social thought, founded Inter-Asia School, a joint academic organization in Asia, promoted Modern Asian Thought Research, launched many Asian academic platforms, including Forum on Human Thought, Annual Conference of Young and Mid-Aged Asian Scholars, Inter-Asia Biennial Forum. Furthermore, he has also edited and published more than 20 academic books, such as Human Thought and The State of Postcolonial Knowledge.

In addition, he proposed to develop visual cultural connotations and curatorial approaches with Chinese cultural traditions, and staged many international art exhibitions such as the Shanghai Biennale, the Guangzhou Triennial, and the Hangzhou Biennale of Chinese Painting. He has long served as an academic member and jury member of international cultural and art exhibition platforms such as the Shanghai Biennale and the China Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, and has been on the annual list of 100 Chinese with influence on Contemporary Art for many years.

In recent years, Gao has curated more than 30 academic exhibitions with great influence (more than 10 are international), organized more than 40 major academic conferences (20 are international), and published more than 50 academic papers in important academic journals and new media communication platforms at home and abroad (more than 10 papers in English in foreign academic seminars and journals). The books he published include The Book of Action: On Writing for Curating, Everything Deadly is Unspeakable, Mirrors and Masks: A Visual Analysis of Reality and Reality. He also edited more than 30 academic books and catalogues, such as Display Culture Series and Transmedia Art Series.