Born in Daegu, South Korea, Hayoon Jay Lee obtained both a BFA and MFA in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Among other awards, Lee received a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship award (2008) from the U.S. Department of Education and a Full Fellowship Artist in Residency Award (2012) from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Her work is in the collections of the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ), Gwangju Contemporary Museum of Art (Gwangju, Korea), and the Henan Museum (Zhengzhou, China).