After graduating from Hongik University with a bachelor’s in painting, Lee went on to earn a master’s in aesthetics from the same school. He took his first step as a curator when the Gwacheon branch of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art opened. Lim served as curatorial researcher at Suknam Arts and Cultural Foundation; chief researcher at the Korean National Researcher Center for the Arts under Korea National University of Arts (K-Arts); and professor at Hongik University’s Graduate School of Fine Arts. Now a professor of fine arts at Sangmyung University as well as director of Hongji Arts Institute and editor of Yoo Youngkuk Journal,” Lee has also served as visiting researcher at a comparative arts think tank of Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts as well as Mingeikan (Japan Folk Crafts Museum) in Tokyo; director of the Chiwoo Craft Museum; and visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin. He also formed the Korea Curators Forum and served as president of the Korean Society of Art History and Korean Society of Aesthetics and Science of Art; exhibit director of the 2009 Cheongju Craft Biennale; director of the sixth Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale; chief researcher for a recording project on Korea’s modern and contemporary art history led by Arko Arts Archive; and artist-in-residency at RMIT University in Australia. Lee has performed exhibit planning, research, education, art critique and museum management across fine arts and ceramics. His books include Studies on the Museum System (K-Arts’ Korean National Research Center for the Arts, 1998), Yoo Youngkuk and His Earlier Abstract Paintings (K-Arts’ Korean National Research Center for the Arts, 2000), Joseon-era Arts and Yanagi Muneyoshi (Sigongsa, 1999), Compendium of the Modern Art History of Korea Volumes III, IV, V (co-author) as well as other theses and critiques. He planned exhibits including Young Korean Artists 1992>, The Modern Painting of East Asia: Birth and Development of Oil Painting (co-planner), Yoo Young-kuk, Turtle’s Tail, Outside the Box and Ceramics Commune.