Liao Lian'gui (1932) was born in Guixian, Guangxi Province. He started his schooling in the Arts Department of the Wuhan Central China Normal University in 1952, and graduated four years later. In 1959, he took on a teaching assignment at the Hubei Art Academy, and in 1965 he moved to the Hubei Provincial Art Academy to work as a professional painter.

In his youth, Li studied Western painting. By the end of the 1960s, however, he shifted his interest to Chinese painting. His works mainly include portraits, landscapes, and flower-and-bird paintings.