Rapper Cheetah is stepping into the gallery, trading her microphone for a paintbrush. In her first upcoming solo exhibition at the Hwangchangbae Museum in western Seoul, the singer-turned-artist presents 22 paintings that trace the pulse of life across nature, animals and humans. The exhibition will open Monday. Titled “Voices Beyond Sound,” the show turns its gaze toward lives bruised, sacrificed or silenced by environmental pollution and ecological destruction. Through these canvases, Cheetah said, she hopes to raise a more fundamental question about “the sacrifices made in the name of progress and humanity’s restless appetite for the next new thing.” “These animals don’t know why the Earth is breaking down, why it’s becoming messier and hotter, or why they are the ones who have to suffer. Yet they still endure that pain. I wanted to capture that look in their eyes through painting,” the rapper said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency. Using a mix of oil paint, pastel, crayon and sand, Cheetah conjures up a menagerie of animals on canvas, from horses and foxes to