statement

According to Eastern culture, a young woman's long hair is associated with life force, sexual energy, growth, and beauty. I have had long hair since high school,which has become my main identifying feature. I use disembodied images of long, straight, black hair as a reference to my identity and as a metaphor to extend the meaning beyond the surface. I have been working with hair imagery since 2002.  The charcoal medium creates a visual image of black hair, which incorporates fine details, darkness and illumination. My large drawings are presented as scroll paintings in order to accentuate the length and the flow of long hair. The ceiling to floor sized scale creates an imposing three-dimensional effect.  Although these drawings are done with charcoal medium, they are related to the aesthetics of traditional Chinese ink painting that I studied at Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. The selected drawing "Bond" is a portrait of mother and daughter. The composition of tilted heads and the connected tails represents their natural relationship.

bio

born: 1971, Shenyang, China

education

University of California Davis, MFA, 2004
California State University, Sacramento, MA, 2002
Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing China, BFA, 1994

selected awards/honors

Pollock Krasner Foundation grant, 2006
Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship, 2004
Skowhegan Artist Residency Full Scholarship,2003
The Drawing Center Viewing Program, 2003

selected publications

Asian Art News,Zhang Chun Hong at Galerie Steph in Singapore,Dorothy Joiner p.81, March/April 2014
Walk The Line:The Art of Drawing, Laurence King Publishing Ltd, London, p.312-317, 2013
White Rabbit Collection of Chinese Art, Big Bang exhibition,Sydney, Australia p.340-343, 2010
New American Paintings catalogue # 66, Western Competition, p.162-165, 2006

selected solo or two-person exhibits

Currents: Flow, Fall, Calm, Curl, Galerie Steph,  Singapore, 2014
Haywire, Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence, Kansas, 2012
Hong Chun Zhang New Work, Byron Cohen Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri, 2008                  
Twin Spirits, Witt Gallery, California State University, Sacramento, California,  2002

selected group shows

Ink and the Body, Ink Studio, Beijing, China, 2014
The Moment for Ink, The Chinese Culture Center, San Francisco, California, 2013
Prism: Drawing from 1990-2012, Contemporary Museum of Art Norway, Oslo, Norway, 2012
Asian American Portrait of Encountersm, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC, 2011