She earned her Bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1998, concentrating in Modern Culture and Media, Art and Semiotics.
In 2001, she earned her MFA in Film and Video from Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College.
[4] In work such as Lunagrams, 2010, in which she exposed archival glass negatives using moonlight, Oppenheim experiments with time as a force of art and imagery.
Oppenheim's solo exhibitions include Open Source, University of California, Riverside, California Museum of Photography (2009); Blood to Ghosts, Klosterfelde, Berlin (2010);[7] Vapours and Veils, Klosterfelde, Berlin (2012);[8] Intervention: Lisa Oppenheim, 21er Haus, The Belvedere Museum, Vienna (2012); Forever is Composed of Nows, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Germany (2014); From Abigail to Jacob (Works 2004–2014) at Grazer Kunstverein (2014) Graz, Austria.
Curated by Andria Hickey, the exhibition, explored the human spine in nature, in the body, and in labor.