Yin Xin was born in China's far-western province of Xinxiang in 1959. Yin Xin is known for paintings depcting Chinese figures in variations on famous Western compositions from art history and explore his passion for China and its people through his work.

Yin studied at Xinjiang Normal University and the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts. In 1988, he left China to attend the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He moved to Europe in the 1990s, where he decided to embark on his signature style after an emotional experience viewing paintings by Georges de La Tour. His previous shows include group presentations at the Shanghai Museum (2005), Musée Courbet (2007), and the Victoria and Albert Museum (2016). In 2017, Notre Dame Cathedral commissioned him to create paintings of the Virgin and Child and Saint Paul Tchen.