Richard Misrach and Guillermo Galindo at Pace Gallery

After years of traveling to the U.S./Mexico border, photographer Richard Misrach and experimental composer Guillermo Galindo joined forces to create sobering images and sculpture inspired by struggles of migrants determined to overcome the border’s many obstacles. This installation view of their exhibition at Pace Gallery in Chelsea features an instrument made by Galindo of items recovered from the region and Misrach’s photos of tires drug behind border patrol vehicles to make a path in which footprints can be detected. (On view through August 18th.)

Installation view of ‘Border Cantos’ by Richard Misrach and Guillermo Galindo at Pace Gallery, June 2017.

Curtis Talwst Santiago at Rachel Uffner Gallery

A tiny, parched figure gasps for water, a protesting crowd descends to a pool of water and here, an overloaded boat of migrants braves choppy waters in dramatic ring box dioramas by Canadian artist Curtis Talwst Santiago. Seen in Lilliputian scale, Santiago’s characters seem to be at the mercy of the elements and other forces beyond their control as they struggle onward. (At Rachel Uffner Gallery on the Lower East Side through Jan 8th).

Curtis Talwst Santiago, Deluge VII, mixed media diorama in reclaimed jewelry box, 6 x 4 x 4 ½ inches, 2016.
Curtis Talwst Santiago, Deluge VII, mixed media diorama in reclaimed jewelry box, 6 x 4 x 4 ½ inches, 2016.

Zhang Dali at Klein Sun Gallery

Ghostly white fiberglass figures representing migrant workers in Tiananmen Square make roosts for flapping doves in Beijing artist Zhang Dali’s exhibition at Chelsea’s KleinSun Gallery. Despite the dove as symbol of hope, the figures are washed of color and identity, bespeaking drab anonymity. (Through August 30th).

Zhang Dali, installation view of ‘Square’ at Klein Sun Gallery, June, 2014. Fiberglass and baking varnish.