Born in 1955 in Nanjing, the capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, Gao moved to the countryside when he was 14 with his parents, who were then both labelled as "capitalist sympathizers" during the "culture revolution."

At 15, he joined the army and was posted to Luoyang, a major city in Central China's Henan Province, where he began painting a year later.

At 17, he became a photographer and arts editor on the Wuhan Military Area newspaper.

During this period, he often travelled while on duty, and it was on such trips that he observed the social realities around him. It was this curiosity that was to propel him to his greatest work.

As his skills improved, he was admitted to the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. His fame began to grow when he produced two famous works, called "Why" (Wei Shenme, 1978) which started the "Wounded Art" movement in China, and "I Love Oilfield" (Wo'ai Youtian, 1978). Both won silver medals at the 1979 National Arts Exhibition, and became part of the permanent collection at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.