Jackie Milad’s “Inside Mouth” is the anti-emoticon. While text messagers and G-chatters everywhere are able to simplify complex human emotions into three simple keystrokes, Milad chooses to make them even more nuanced than our own muscles permit. Her exploration of human expression is manifested in meticulous, gridded drawings of hundreds of faces—angry, sad, silly, and some visages not possible in real life—made by androgynous, bald figures. Some stick their tongues out at you; others converse in Spanish. Looking through the rows of faces, you’ll see your co-workers, your mother, yourself. That’s why the exhibition could do without Milad’s photographs of volunteers wearing bald caps and impersonating the faces she’s drawn. The photos take away the universality of the drawings and stunt our imaginations—which should be free to run as wild as Milad’s has.

THE EXHIBITION IS ON VIEW NOON TO 6 P.M. TUESDAY TO SATURDAY TO FEB. 13 AT FLASHPOINT, 916 G ST. NW. FREE. (202) 315-1310.