1958年出生于浙江黄岩，14岁时因绘画出色特招入在杭州临平的浙江生产建设兵团工业三团。1977恢复高考入中国美术学院(原浙江美院)油画系就读。曾工作於杭州工艺美术研究所和工艺美校，浙江美术出版社。1985调回母校油画系任教，历任讲师与万曼壁挂研究所万曼助理。期间参与发起“85新潮”重要团体的“85新空间”。1987年获法国艺术对话协会颁发的“艺术对话奖”，并多次获国家级展览奖项。1989年赴美举办画展并定居纽约。2012年获聘南昌大学艺术与设计学院教授。现在纽约与杭州设工作室进行创作与展览活动。
    Xu Jin was born in 1958 in Huangyan city of Zhejiang province. At the age of fourteen, he passed a specialty exam on painting and was recruited into the Third Industrial Corps of the Zhejiang Production and Construction Corps based in the suburban city of Linping near Hangzhou. In 1977, when China resumed the College Entrance Exams, he was admitted into the ChinaAcademy of Fine Arts (formerly the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts), majoring in oil painting. After his graduation, he worked briefly at the Hangzhou Institute of Industrial Arts, the School of Industrial Arts, and the Zhejiang Fine Arts Press. In 1985, he transferred to his Alma Mater and became a teacher in the Oil Painting Department. He worked first as an assistant professor, then as the assistant of the artist Maryn Varbanov at the Varbanov Tapestry Studio. During that time, Xu co-founded the " '85 New Space" group that became an important part of the " '85 New Wave" movement. In 1987, he won the "Artistic Dialogues Award" given by the Association of Artistic Dialogues in France, as well as many national awards. He held an exhibition in the United States in 1989, and later settled down in New York City. In 2012, he was hired as a professor by the College of Arts and Design at Nanchang University. He now has studios in both New York and Hangzhou, where he works and holds exhibitions.