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Chen Yifei 陈逸飞 (April 12, 1946 – April 10, 2005) was a renowned Chinese painter, art director and film director. A central figure in the development of Chinese oil painting, he is also considered one of China's most renowned contemporary artists.

Chen was born in Ningbo of the coastal province of Zhejiang. Later, the Chen family moved to Shanghai and Chen began his studies of Russian artists and Socialist Realism. Chen graduated from the High School for Art in Shanghai in 1964, then graduated from the Shanghai Training School of Art (also called the Shanghai College of Art) in 1965 and soon after began focusing almost exclusively on oil painting. Within a year, as the Cultural Revolution gained steam, Chen caught the attention of Communist officials for his propaganda works that frequently glorified soldiers of the Communist party and portrayed grand images of Mao Zedong. Chen was soon viewed as "one of the leading artists at the state-financed Shanghai Institute of Painting."[1] As the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, Chen continued making oil paintings, now shifting his focus to a more romantic and European style. Chen was considered "one of the first artists to bridge the gap between the art of the Cultural Revolution and Western contemporary art".

In the 1970s, his profile rose due to his oil works. Chen began to attract the attention of Western buyers, including Armand Hammer (Chairman of the Occidental Petroleum Corporation in the United States), who purchased Chen's Hometown Recall as a gift for Deng Xiaoping.

In 1980 Chen left his position as head of the Oil Painting Department of the Shanghai Painting Academy in China to explore the art scene of New York, being one of the first artists of the People's Republic of China allowed out of the state to study art in the USA. Chen often told interviewers that he arrived in New York "with only $38 in his pocket" but still managed to catch the attention of gallery owners early after arrival. Although he was successful as an artist in China, he ventured to the United States, not to necessarily make his print on the art establishment, but to explore his predilections of artistic style. The New York art scene offered him the freedom to experiment and to settle with a form that he could be comfortable using. Chen expressed "elat[ion] by the freedom to look at art" and explore his boundaries. He gained entrance at Hunter College in the US after he arrived and worked as an art restorer. By 1983, before graduating from Hunter College, Chen's solo exhibitions at the Hammer Galleries had promoted his fame to where he later signed a contract to paint for Hammer Galleries. Chen then graduated from Hunter College in 1984 with a Master's in Art.

In 1990, Chen returned to China, settling in Shanghai. The early 1990s denoted a point when Chen's art sold for record-breaking prices in big-name galleries. In the early 1990s, Chen also began building his name as a businessman, investing in a magazine called the "Shanghai Tatler," his Layefe fashion brands and later home design brands, and a restaurant in Xintiandi. Chen also began his film production career in 1993.

In 1994, Chen started his long-standing friendship and partnership with Gilbert Lloyd of the Marlborough Fine Art gallery who acted as his art dealer until his death.