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Chinese artist Hong Chun Zhang, now living and working in Kansas, has found a balance between her Chinese and American artistic educations and cultures. Her painting and drawing foundation from China was very rigorous, but her content choices are now less restricted due to her US exposure.
Much of her work revolves around hair, something she identifies with, and characterizes her to some degree through her own long hair, in addition to being something Zhang finds both beautiful and at times repulsive. She has charcoal drawings on larger-than-life scrolls to emphasize the length, and very realistic oil paintings on the subject matter as well. She also combines hair with everyday objects to make humorous and surreal pieces.
From the artist:
Twin Spirits are large charcoal hair drawings, self-portraits of my twin sister and me. I use long hair to exaggerate our major characteristic and as a metaphor to reveal something that is beyond the hair. These drawings are presented as scroll paintings in order to accentuate the length of the piece and the flow of long hair. The larger than life-size scale creates a three-dimensional effect that extends the meaning beyond the surface. My most recent drawings and paintings on hair, however, is a new approach from personal to more universal. This time, long hair is meant to examine a woman’s complete life cycle.
Here is an interview with Hong Chun Zhang:
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