Leon Lim

Born and raised in Malaysia, Leon Lim is an artist and designer based in New York City.

Lim’s deafness has developed his ability to have a strong visual sense. As a child, Lim discovered colorful prints covered on music cassettes which brought him into the art world. Lim’s works range from painting and sculpture to interior architecture and graphic design to multimedia and art installations and photography. He often explores themes of heritage preservation, social segregation, interactive communication, and the society of identity and culture.

A Nippon Foundation scholar, he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rochester Institute of Technology, New York. He earned four awards: Outstanding International Student Service, Outstanding Presidential Service, Dawan L. Albritton Student Humanitarian, and The Year of the Club.

Leon Lim’s cutting edge new media work was selected and supported by the Renascence '07 exhibition organised by VSA Arts.

Renascence '07 premiered at the World Financial Cente in New York, in February 2008

Renascence is an international juried exhibition of New Media Art by artists with disabilities. It brings ideas from international artists who use new media to convey personal experience, changing perceptions both about disability and the role of new media in the conventional art world.

The website Renascence '07 features a video clip on artists with disability, wait for it to download, it's worth watching!
Leon: "Renascence is a strong word to me because I am Deaf since birth. I feel like everything is reborn when I look at the past. "

Leon's multimedia installation, Silent Story has also been exhibited at the John F. Kennedy Center.

His permanent sculptural installation The 3(656) at Rochester Institute of Technology, was launched on May 02, 2008.

Leon Lim’s next project:
Total Museum of Contemporary Arts, one of Seoul’s very well known museums, has selected Leon as one of the 15 International artists to create new artwork for the museum’s upcoming exhibition which will be held on July 21, 2008. The exhibition is developed by Korean curator, Byeong Sam-Jeon.

Next year, Leon’s profile and artwork will be featured on a 2009 calendar that will be issued by the Mayor’s Office of New York City.

DeafLife Magazine based in USA has selected Leon as the Deaf Person of the Month featured on DeafPeople.com and interviewed with Leon for DeafLife Magazine April 2008.

Leon has been accepted as a grad student of Interactive Communication at New York University in 2009 but his financial aid for education is not provided. He believes strongly that The Impossible Is Possible.

Leon Lim's website
Leon Lim's GeorgeTown photography series
Leon Lim's fashion works

'After Midnight' is a series of photographs of George Town, Penang, currently nominated for inclusion in UNESCO's World Heritage List. See Historic Cites of Penang and Melaka.

Leon Lim: The photographs, I believe, will allow residents to ask a common question: “Why did this photographer take photo my house after 12am? A robber?” In contrast, visitors and workers will ask, “What makes these photos special? Too quiet... looking for ghosts?” The photographs I created make important messages for viewers about how George Town has influenced and is influencing people’s learning: invisible emotions & pains and symbols & interior/architecture spaces.