Gil Woo Lee has varied and evolved flat into the form of "superimposed narrative" through personal analysis on time and space woven by his own media experiences and original ideas from a viewpoint of such Asian "conversion".
His painting, which overlaps numerous traces of creation and disappearance of time and space by ritual actions, close to performances, of burning incense and searing with a hot iron, is a result of "poetic labor" as Georg Lukacs mentioned. On the flat obtained by labor-like hand work, the artist crosses and overlaps the images of Oriental and Western icons in the 20th Century.
PERSONAL STATEMENT
"One day in the autumn of 2003 while painting at my studio in Seoul, I looked up towards the sky and noticed that the Ginko leaves seemed to be burning with fire in the reflection of the white sky. This intense visual experience brought an idea to me about burning incense. The collective beauty of the Ginko leaves was a magnificent spectacle and I soon began incorporating burning incense with my work.
The ceremony of burning papers with incense and solder iron is a profound part of performance to my art. I carry out this ceremony with patience just like burning incense in ceremonial rituals for purification. In my works, I use fire in a technical method by using hot burning incense and a soldering iron to burn permeated screens of Hanji, a Korean traditional paper. I try to show profiles of the modern time of 'cosmopolitanism,' where multi-cultures coexist beyond the collision of Eastern and Western cultures, in a method of practicing ideology of transmigration of souls in Buddhism. Through a technical image in the ideology of transmigration of souls of all things with life in ashes after their deaths, I produce new images through the repeated burning of Korean traditional papers, one by one.
New screens are reproduced after filling them up with colors on repeated expression of smoked traces with combination of paper, fire flames and special effects provided by the media of paper. This is a methodology of oriental philosophy just like burning one by one for vacating thinking in seving incense flames is the root and origination of my works. My works vanishing the two images separated far away using flames and soldering irons by overlapping them is just like to arrive finally at new thinking after endlessly serving incenses flames to vacate thinking and is a new method of expressing images for creating new images."
Solo Exhibitions
2011 "New York State of Mind", White Box, New York City
2008 Beijing CIGE, Beijing
2008 “Dongmoon Seodap-Let It Flow”, Gallery Moon, Beijing
2007 “Dongmoon Seodap-Travelogue of Mr. Ronald”, Sun Contemporary, Seoul
2006 “Dongmoon Seodap”, Gallery Moon, Beijing
2008 “Dongmoon Seodap-Let It Flow”, Gallery Moon, Beijing
2007 “Dongmoon Seodap-Travelogue of Mr. Ronald”, Sun Contemporary, Seoul
2006 “Dongmoon Seodap”, Gallery Moon, Beijing
Group Exhibitions
"America", 2nd City Council, Los Angeles
Gallery IS, Seoul
“Mothers Exhibition”, Misulgwanganeungil, Seoul
Gallery Grimson, Seoul
Gallery Hyundai, Seoul
“Lost & Found Rokedy”, rokedygallery, London, England
Sun Contemporary, Seoul
“I Love Art”, Insa Art Center, Seoul
Nanjing Grand Art Exchange, Nanjing, China
“Revisited Chihwaseon”, City Gallery, Seoul
KIFE, KOEX Indoyang Hall, Seoul
Joongwon Exhibition 20th Anniversary, Dongdeok Gallery, Seoul
“30 Jahre Galerie Von Braunbehrens”, Galerie Von Braunbehrens, Munich
Seoul Open Art Fair, KOEX Indoyang Hall, Seoul
“Color Field”, Gallery J*CHEN, Taiwan
“Treasure In My Heart”, Seoul Municipal Art Gallery
“Cutting Edge”, Seoul Auctions Face, Seoul
mAuction, MBC, Daegu
kAuction, Seoul
“NatureFour”, Gangnam Sun Gallery
Imok Gallery Planning Exhibition, Imok Gallery, Seoul
Busan Gallery Art Festival, Busan
“Treasure In My Heart”, Municipal Gallery, Seoul
Seoul Gallery Art Festival, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
Gallery the K Opening Exhibition, Gallery the K, Seoul
“The Best of The Best 20”, Insa Art Center, Seoul
55 Contemporary Artists Selected by Monthly Chosun Critics, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
130 Artists with Critical Views, Insa Art Center, Seoul
“Ride Tiger with White Boy and the Magpie Story”, Gyeonggido Art Museum, Yongin
“Thermocline of Art New Asian Waves”, Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany
“Cutting Edge”, Gana Seoul Auction, Seoul
Hanhai Auction, Beijing
ARCO 2007, Ifema, Madrid, Spain
“No Bounds”, Sun Contemporary Planning, Seoul
Chung-Ang Grand Korean Painting Exhibition, Sejong Cultural Center Art Museum, Seoul
Gallery IS, Seoul
“Mothers Exhibition”, Misulgwanganeungil, Seoul
Gallery Grimson, Seoul
Gallery Hyundai, Seoul
“Lost & Found Rokedy”, rokedygallery, London, England
Sun Contemporary, Seoul
“I Love Art”, Insa Art Center, Seoul
Nanjing Grand Art Exchange, Nanjing, China
“Revisited Chihwaseon”, City Gallery, Seoul
KIFE, KOEX Indoyang Hall, Seoul
Joongwon Exhibition 20th Anniversary, Dongdeok Gallery, Seoul
“30 Jahre Galerie Von Braunbehrens”, Galerie Von Braunbehrens, Munich
Seoul Open Art Fair, KOEX Indoyang Hall, Seoul
“Color Field”, Gallery J*CHEN, Taiwan
“Treasure In My Heart”, Seoul Municipal Art Gallery
“Cutting Edge”, Seoul Auctions Face, Seoul
mAuction, MBC, Daegu
kAuction, Seoul
“NatureFour”, Gangnam Sun Gallery
Imok Gallery Planning Exhibition, Imok Gallery, Seoul
Busan Gallery Art Festival, Busan
“Treasure In My Heart”, Municipal Gallery, Seoul
Seoul Gallery Art Festival, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
Gallery the K Opening Exhibition, Gallery the K, Seoul
“The Best of The Best 20”, Insa Art Center, Seoul
55 Contemporary Artists Selected by Monthly Chosun Critics, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
130 Artists with Critical Views, Insa Art Center, Seoul
“Ride Tiger with White Boy and the Magpie Story”, Gyeonggido Art Museum, Yongin
“Thermocline of Art New Asian Waves”, Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany
“Cutting Edge”, Gana Seoul Auction, Seoul
Hanhai Auction, Beijing
ARCO 2007, Ifema, Madrid, Spain
“No Bounds”, Sun Contemporary Planning, Seoul
Chung-Ang Grand Korean Painting Exhibition, Sejong Cultural Center Art Museum, Seoul
International Biennials
2010 Bangladesh Asian Art Biennale
2009 Czech Biennial Exhibition, Prague
International Art Fairs
2010 Miami International Art Fair
2010 Dubai International Art Fair 2010 Beijing show
2009 Scope New York, Lincoln Center Damrosch Park, New York
2009 Miami International Art Fair
2009 Dubai International Art Fair 2008 Miami International Art Fair
2008 Singapore International Art Fair
2008 Switzerland Basel Scope, Basel
2008 Beijing International Art Fair (CIGE), Beijing Expo, Beijing
2008 Dubai International Art Fair, Dubai
2007 Spain Arco International Art Fair
2007 Beijing International Art Fair
2007 Shanghai International Art Fair
2006 Singapore International Art Fair
2006 Chicago International Art Fair
2005 Shanghai International Art Fair
Awards
2011 First Place, "America", 2nd City Council Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2010 Grand Prize at the 14th Asian Art Biennale hosted by Bangladeshi Shilpakala Academy
2000 Dongah Art Award at the 12th Dongah Grand Art Exhibition hosted by National Museum of Contemporary Art
2000 Special Prize at the 19th Korea Grand Art Exhibition hosted by National Museum of Contemporary Art
1999 Excellence Prize at the 15th Moodeung Grand Art Exhibition hosted by Gwangju Municipal Gallery
1997 Special Prize at the 19th Chung-Ang Grand Art Exhibition hosted by Hoam Gallery
1997 Special Prize at the 24th Figurative Exhibition hosted by National Museum of Contemporary Art
1997 Special Prize at the 17th Maeil Grand Art Exhibition hosted by Daegu Municipal Gallery
1997 Special Prize at the 11th Art World Grand Exhibition hosted by Gyeongin Gallery
Gil Woo Lee Awarded First Prize, 2nd City Council, Los Angeles, Summer 2011
Gil Woo Lee at 2nd City Council, Los Angeles, Summer 2011
Gil Woo Lee at 2nd City Council, Los Angeles, Summer 2011
Gil Woo Lee at White Box, New York City, February 2011
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