The winter quarter exhibition at the DePaul University Art Gallery will explore how life’s many borders and boundaries impact people. "Crossing Zones," which opens Jan. 15, showcases six artists whose works examine geographic and cultural boundaries. The gallery, located in the Richardson Library, 2350 N. Kenmore Ave., will hold an opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m.

"Crossing Zones" is an exhibition that reflects DePaul’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences winter quarter humanities theme entitled "Culture at the Edge: Tension and Promise." Programs include a panel discussion on cultural influences, a series of public lectures, a conference on social boundaries and the opening of a humanities center. Performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña will give a lecture Feb. 24.

The art exhibition examines the work of contemporary artists who explore issues of place, nationality and identity. James Drake, through photographs and video, documents the sign language exchanged between incarcerated illegal aliens and their relatives in the streets of El Paso, Texas; Ik-Joong Kang, a sculptor born in South Korea, analyzes the relationship between Korean culture and the American military through an outsized likeness of Gen. Douglas MacArthur made of chocolate. Michael Piazza and Raul Quintanilla will produce an art installation simultaneously at DePaul and in Managua, Nicaragua. Visitors who go to a web site will get to see how the object is taking shape in the other country.

"Both locations may begin with a chair, for instance, and when visitors make suggestions in one place as to how to modify the piece, changes will be made to both pieces," explained Louise Lincoln, director of the gallery. "Over time, the works may diverge, just as language and other aspects of culture differentiate. The moving from one point to another, speaks to the process of translation and cultural differences," she continued.

Mikal Rovner literally makes art at the border between Israel and Lebanon by taking photos of people in historical landscapes. She then alters the prints so that the people look more like human chromosomes. Some of her pieces, mounted on huge banners, have been hung at the border of Israel and Lebanon. Canan Tolon, from Turkey, fuses living grasses with steel structures in her portable landscape constructions. These precariously balanced fragments suggest the arbitrary and sometimes violent nature of geopolitical divisions.

"Questions of identity -- personal, national or cultural -- have always been important to art, but in the present day these issues have much more urgency, and are crucial to understanding the world," said Lincoln. "The work of these artists, all of whom approach the subject in different ways, underscores that importance."

The exhibition runs through March 13. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday. The gallery is closed on Sundays. All DePaul Art Gallery exhibitions are free and open to the public.