Xi Zhang, Recent Paintings exhibit, opened at Rule Gallery last night, displaying an acrylic on canvas series. Originally from China, the now Denver-based artist balances the traditions of Taoist religion with the conditions of contemporary Western experience. The paintings depict masked faces, which give little clue to gender, social rank, or other cultural signifiers and are instead evocative in emotional articulation, primarily via the eyes. Zhang explores the paradoxes of universality versus individual solitude, spirituality versus material existence.