Gao Zhongyan, of Bai ethnicity, was born in 1942 in Heqing, Yunnan Province. In 1968, he graduated from the Fine Arts Department of the Central Institute of Minorities and subsequently worked in the Yunnan Provincial Exhibition Hall and the Yunnan Provincial Museum. He took a refresher course in oil painting at the Central Art Academy in 1984, and afterwards joined the Yunnan Art Academy to work in its Fine Arts Department.

Gao is renowned for his oil paintings.