Lee GilWoo is a Korean collage artist and painter who explores themes of creation and destruction through a deeply personal and ritualistic practice of burning incense to forge spectral images of daily life. Lee’s practice is distinct in being simultaneously additive and reductive. He first assembles overlapping layers of Korean mulberry paper, ink wash, and cutouts of newspapers and prints before overlaying a final “screen” in which the subject is rendered by burning a myriad of pinholes with sticks of incense. Although Lee’s singular practice is ritualistic and idiomatic—having been born from his personal experiences of burning incense as a form of prayer for his ill parents—his chosen subject matter tends to be drawn from familiar scenes of everyday life. This contrast between practice and subject as presented by the singed image challenges the viewer to re-encounter the quotidian and the mundane through literal apertures of transformative ritual. Lee Gilwoo lives and works in Seoul. As a rising contemporary artist in Asia, Lee has had over twenty solo exhibitions in Korea, China, the United States, Japan, and Russia. He has also participated in multiple international art fairs, as well as invitational group exhibitions at various galleries, museums, and other institutions across the world. His awards include Granze Prize at the 2010 Bangladesh International Asia Biennale. His works are in public and private collections throughout the world, including Korea’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the private art collection of Chinese actress Fan BingBing.