Born in Kedah, Malaysia, being profoundly and proudly deaf since birth allowed Lim to develop a keen sense of observation. As an alienated child, Lim discovered colorful prints covered on music cassettes, which brought him into the art world as well as loved collecting everyday objects that expanded upon his imagination and expression of his own. Decided to move to Penang, he attended high school, the Federation School for the Deaf (presently known as SMK Pendidikan Khas Persekutuan) where teaches the subjects in sign language, his first language before English or Malay langauge. Lim lived alone far away from his family home and developing a passionate sense of independence at the tender age of 14. Living alone at an early age afforded Lim the deep desire to build his own world free of the barriers that come with the need to hear sound or music. During his early years, Lim was artistically and socially frustrated by the fact that there was virtually no exposure on art education and contemporary art in Malaysia. His decision to move to New York with three International academic scholarships became a turing point in his art career. Lim, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree holder from Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, settled in New York City, which had been Lim's childhood dream before coming to USA, envisioning a career as an artist.

Lim works in a variety of mediums such as painting, installation, multimedia, light, fine art photography, print, and fire. Lim believes that seeing visual objects comes first before reading words in the process of artwork. Seeing and Reading make different experiences and discoveries in art. Throughout his oeuvre, Lim's work surveys his experience between West and East cultural legacies and his life without the influence of sound or music. Lim is known for his resonant works that explore themes surrounding the expressions of heritage preservation and social segregation, the communication barriers, the intertwining of all realms of life and death, and the politics of identity and culture. His collections from his childhood years made his work a rare understanding of what on the earth art is because he can see things people can't see. He constructs works that employed old found objects and new revolutionary materials in creative combinations.

Lim’s first art exhibition was a solo exhibition titled “Exhausted Streets After Midnight: George Town” at the Dyer Art Center in New York in 2003. His work has been exhibited at Total Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, Souh Korea and CAFA Art Museum in Beijing, China, and the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC, USA. Lim was the finalist for creating a permanent art installation for two U.S. Departments; Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism and Washington State Arts Commission. Commissioned to create Penang's first public art installation, "The Last Chairs" for George Town Festival presented in conjunction with Penang State Government and UNESCO World Heritage. Most recently, his artistic portrait of Julian Assange is selected for TIME magazine's Person of the Year edition (December 2010 - January 2011).