Wei Tianyu (1956) was from Shanghai. In 1982, he graduated from the Sculpture Department of the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts with a bachelor's degree and stayed on to teach. He was a visiting scholar at the Department of Art, University of Minnesota, USA, in 1991. From 1991-2001, he lived in the United States.

He was the chief planner of the Sculpture Project along the Riverside Landscape Belt in the Shanghai World Expo Park; Vice President of the Shanghai Design Institute of the China Academy of Art; Director of the Urban Visual Art Research Center of the China Academy of Art; and director of the China Architecture Art Research Association.