Art Exhibitions

Hong Chun Zhang and Chong Siew Ying Hong Chun Zhang and Chong Siew Ying join the many contemporary artists who use hair and images of hair to examine social difference, mortality, fetishism, gender and other cultural issues. Zhang, who was born and reared in China but received her MA and MFA degrees in the States and now lives in Lawrence, makes drawings in which delicate pencil lines mimic hair in a tactile way. "Split Ends," "Soft Cut," "Cheers" and "Recording" are also clever visual puns on the relationships between language and image. Also on display here are four paintings in which Zhang incorporates hair into everyday imagery, substituting it for such things as running water. Ying, meanwhile, paints images of beautiful, happy or smiling monochromatic faces floating inside groupings of flowers and butterflies, often superimposing the faces with serene clouds or mountains. These paintings are pleasing but facile, lacking the weight of experience or commentary. Through May 24 at Byron C. Cohen Gallery for Contemporary Art, 2020 Baltimore, 816-421-5665. (Dana Self)