Li received her BFA from the Central Academy of Art and Design (now the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University) in Beijing and her MFA from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She is a Professor of Art at Cleveland State University.
Her works have been exhibited widely across the United States, Europe, and Asia. She is a two-time recipient of the Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council (2008, 2015), a CAN Triennial Winner (2022), and a Distinguished Art Alumni of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She has also curated exhibitions introducing contemporary Chinese art to American audiences at the Galleries at Cleveland State University in 2015 and 2018.