Li Lin Lee was born in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1955, then immigrated to the US with his family in 1962. Lee graduated from the University of Pittsburgh and has exhibited widely throughout the US since 1988, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. He has collaborated with print workshops, such as Crown Point Press in San Francisco, CA., Shark’s Inc. in Boulder, Colorado, and Rong Bao Zhai Woodblock Workshop in Beijing, China. His paintings and prints are represented in museums such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and the Hallmark Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Lee is also represented in many corporate and private collections, including the Vera List Foundation, Prudential Insurance, Citibank, US State Department, and many others.

In his artistic process, Lee plays with paint and follows his instincts, letting go of the instinctual need for control. For him, it is exciting to not know what is going to happen next. Each of his works has multiple layers of paint and passages, with a story and questions emerging as the eye excavates the surface. He likes working in small scale, believing that smaller works contain a more concentrated energy that the eye can encompass intimately. Lee hopes his paintings will encourage contemplation and raise questions about time, memory, purpose, suffering, and finally, joy.