Skip to content
Alumni Tribute to Pope.L at the University of Chicago

Alumni Tribute to Pope.L at the University of Chicago

Hansel and Gretel

May 4, 2024

Unless he was on sabbatical, Pope. L created a theater work with Department of Visual Art (DoVA) MFA students each year between 2011 and 2023 as a required component of their curriculum. “So over a period of ten weeks we read fairy tales,” he reflected, “looked at operas of fairy tales, read essays about the writing, politics and history of fairy tales, discussed the intersecting layers of human practice and intention that produce fairy tales and eventually created a live production of a fairy tale in the tenth week. It was a lively time and the students did a great job.” Wishing to celebrate this remarkable pedagogical encounter with its alumni, artist and DoVA faculty member Catherine Sullivan invited them to revisit Hansel and Gretel on or near the For Events platform. Alumni have also begun work on an archival project that will continue beyond the performance on May 4.

Pope.L, Provocative Performance Artist, Dies at 68

Pope.L, Provocative Performance Artist, Dies at 68

1955 - 2023

The New York Times

Pope.L, an uncompromising conceptual and performance artist who explored themes of race, class and what he called “have-not-ness,” and who was best known for crawling the length of Broadway in a Superman costume, died on Saturday at his home in Chicago. He was 68. The death was confirmed by his gallery, Mitchell-Innes & Nash.

Pope.L at South London Gallery

Pope.L at South London Gallery

Hospital

November 21, 2023 - February 11, 2024

Pope.L’s wide ranging practice spans writing, painting, performance, installation, sculpture and video, which will be explored across both the SLG’s Main Gallery and Fire Station. Hospital is the artist’s first solo exhibition in a London institution.

Pope.L at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts

Pope.L at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts

This Machine Creates Opacities

October 6 - December 22, 2023

On the occasion of the Carpenter Center’s 60th anniversary, This Machine Creates Opacities restages four major works by artists Robert Fulton, Renée Green, Pierre Huyghe, and Pope.L that examine the ways buildings choreograph, shape, and control social life, learning, and cultural structures. With its title borrowed from statements the artist Pope.L made about navigating the Carpenter Center building upon an invitation to make a new commission, the exhibition reflects on the program, affect, history, and various complexities of Le Corbusier’s iconic architecture.

Pope.L at 52 Walker

Pope.L at 52 Walker

Gordon Matta-Clark & Pope.L: Impossible Failures

February 3 - April 1, 2023

52 Walker is pleased to announce its sixth exhibition, Impossible Failures, which will pair work by Gordon Matta-Clark (1943–1978) and Pope.L (b. 1955). Focusing on their shared fixation regarding the problematics of architecture, language, institutions, scale, and value, Impossible Failures will feature a selection of drawings as well as films by each artist. Pope.L will also debut a new site-specific installation, presented in collaboration with Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York.

Pope.L at PORTIKUS

Pope.L at PORTIKUS

Misconceptions

September 8, 2021 – November 21, 2021

Portikus is proud to present the first video solo exhibition in Germany by the renowned American artist, theater director and educator Pope.L (*1955). 

Misconceptions premieres Pope.L’s latest video production titled Missverständnisse, a work that portrays provocative stereotypes to address issues of misogyny, nation, xenophobia, racism, and prejudices that persist in society to this day. Pope.L’s new work employs satire, laughs, and taboos as vehicles for engaging pertinent and painful truths, including the blind subservience to self, patriarchy, class, nation, and the permutations of indifference. 

Pope.L at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen

Pope.L at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen

Everyone Is an Artist. Cosmopolitical Exercises with Joseph Beuys

March 27 – August 15, 2021

As a draftsman, sculptor, teacher, politician, and activist, as well as action and installation artist, Joseph Beuys (1921, Krefeld – 1986, Düsseldorf) fundamentally changed the art of the twentieth century. His influence can still be felt today in artistic and political discourses. His centennial in 2021 is an occasion to rediscover and critically question both his complex work and his international appeal.

The exhibition provides profound insight into the cosmopolitical thinking of Joseph Beuys as manifested in his actions. For here—as an acting, speaking, and moving figure—Beuys examined the central and radical idea of his expanded concept of art: “Everyone is an artist”. The goal of his universalist approach was to renew society from the ground up.

Pope.L at the Walker Art Center

Pope.L at the Walker Art Center

The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, and Performance

May 15 – August 8, 2021

Through works that bring together objects, movement, or the living body, The Paradox of Stillness explores the intersections between performance and visual art. The exhibition features some 100 artworks by successive generations of artists who test the boundaries between stillness and motion, mortality and time.

Pope.L in Water After Fall

Pope.L in Water After Fall

Water After Fall

December 14, 2019 – June 14, 2020

Pope.L is included in a group exibtion, Water After Fall, at MCA Chicago through June 14, 2020.

Justine Kurland and Pope.L in THIS LONG CENTURY

THIS LONG CENTURY is an ever-evolving collection of personal insights from artists, authors, filmmakers, musicians and cultural icons the world over. Bringing together such intimate work as sketchbooks, personal memorabilia, annotated typescripts, short essays, home movies and near impossible to find archival work, THIS LONG CENTURY serves as a direct line to the contributors themselves.

Pope.L in Open Dialogue: Generational Inequality and the Environment

Pope.L in Open Dialogue: Generational Inequality and the Environment

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

April 19, 2020

Pope.L in conversation on Generational Inequality and the Environment.  Please follow the link on the MCA Chicago's website for more information. 

Pope.L Survey at MoMA

Pope.L Survey at MoMA

member: Pope.L, 1978–2001

October 21, 2019 – February 1, 2020

Mitchell-Innes & Nash congratulates Pope.L on member: Pope.L, 1978–2001, an exhibition of landmark performances and related videos, objects and installations at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, on view October 21, 2019 through February 1, 2020. MoMA's presentation is part of Pope.L: Instigation, Aspiration, Perspiration, a trio of complementary exhibitions organized by MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art and Public Art Fund. 

Pope.L and Amanda Ross Ho at The Arguer Kunsthaus

Pope.L and Amanda Ross Ho at The Arguer Kunsthaus

Mask: In Present-Day Art

September 1, 2019 – January 5, 2020

Pope.L and Amanda Ross-Ho are both included in the group exhibtion Mask: In Present-Day Art at the Arguer Kunsthaus.

Pope.L "Dressing Up for Civil Rights" Performances at the Museum of Modern Art

Pope.L "Dressing Up for Civil Rights" Performances at the Museum of Modern Art

member: Pope.L 1978–2001

November 19, December 10, 2019 and January 21, 2020

Performances of Dressing Up for Civil Rights will take place on Tuesday, November 19 from 1:00–4:00 p.m, Tuesday, December 10 from 1:00–4:00 pm and Tuesday, January 21, 2020 from 1:00–4:00 pm at the MoMA, Floor 1. Performances will occur approximately within the hours of 1:00 and 4:00 pm and are free with museum admission. 

Pope.L "Eating the Wall Street Journal (Flag Version)" Performance at the Museum of Modern Art

Pope.L "Eating the Wall Street Journal (Flag Version)" Performance at the Museum of Modern Art

member: Pope.L 1978–2001

November 17, 2019

A performance of Eating the Wall Street Journal will take place on Sunday, November 17 from 2:00–4:00 p.m, Sunday, December 8 from 2:00–4:00 p.m. and Sunday, January 19, 2020 from 2:00–4:00 p.m. at the MoMA located on floor 3, 3 South, The Edward Steichen Galleries. Performances will occur approximately within the hours of 2:00 and 4:00 p.m and are free with museum admission. 

Pope.L edition at The Wattis Institute

Pope.L edition at The Wattis Institute

The Wattis Insitute

November 13, 2019

Pope.L is an internationally acclaimed interdisciplinary artist, perhaps best known for his provocative performances and interventions in public spaces. His work addresses issues and themes of language, gender, race, social struggle, and community. He has received many prestigious grants and awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship, NEA fellowships, and the USA Fellowship in Visual Arts. He has been included in numerous exhibitions around the world, and in fall 2019 the Whitney Museum and MoMA host simultaneous solo exhibitions, and the Public Art Fund presents a major performance. Pope.L’s sculpture Lever (2016) was included in the group exhibition Mechanisms at the Wattis in 2017.

Pope.L at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Pope.L at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Choir

October 1, 2019 – March 8, 2020

At the Whitney, on the occasion of Pope.L’s receipt of the 2017 Bucksbaum Award, the artist will create a new installation entitled Choir. Expanding on Pope.L’s ongoing exploration and use of water, Choir is inspired by the fountain, the public arena, and John Cage’s conception of music and sound. The Whitney presentation is organized by Christopher Y. Lew, Nancy and Fred Poses Curator, with Ambika Trasi, curatorial assistant.

Pope.L at the Public Art Fund

Pope.L at the Public Art Fund

Conquest

September 21, 2019

On September 21, Public Art Fund will present Conquest, Pope.L’s largest group performance to date. Inspired by the artist’s iconic crawls in which he dragged his body across the urban landscape, Conquest will navigate the streets of Downtown Manhattan continuing the irreverent tradition of his more than 30 performative works that have taken place since 1978.

Pope.L at MoMA, Whitney, Public Art Fund

Pope.L at MoMA, Whitney, Public Art Fund

Instigation, Aspiration, Perspiration

Fall 2019

Mitchell-Innes & Nash congratulates Pope.L on Instigation, Aspiration, Perspiration, a trio of complementary exhibitions of his work in New York organized by the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and Public Art Fund to occur simultaneously in the fall of 2019. 

Pope.L in the 2019 White Columns Benefit Auction

Pope.L in the 2019 White Columns Benefit Auction

White Columns

May 29 at 6:30 pm

Bid on Pope.L in the 2019 White Columns Benefit Auction. All proceeds benefit White Columns, New York's oldest alternative, non-profit space. 

Pope.L in the CAM Benefit Auction 2019

Pope.L in the CAM Benefit Auction 2019

The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis

May 28 at 4:00 pm

Bid on Pope.L in The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis Benefit Auction 2019. CAM works to enrich lives and inspire curiosity, creativity, and learning through experiences with contemporary art. Proceeds directly benefit each participating artist and the Museum’s cutting-edge exhibition program and innovative education initiatives.

Pope.L with Adam Pendleton at Eva Presenhuber

Pope.L with Adam Pendleton at Eva Presenhuber

No Thing

January 19 – March 16, 2019

A two person exhibition with Pope.L and Adam Pendleton. 

Pope.L at the San José Museum of Art
Exhibition | San José

Pope.L at the San José Museum of Art

Other Walks, Other Lines

November 2, 2018 – March 10, 2019

Pope.L is included in the group exhibition Other Walks, Other Lines at the San José Museum of Art. 

Pope.L on The High Line

Pope.L on The High Line

chmera

Through March 2019

Mitchell-Innes & Nash is pleased to announce Pope.L’s participation in Agora on the High Line with the debut of chmera located on the elevated park at Washington and West 13th Street.

Watch documentation of Pope.L’s The Escape at The Art Institute of Chicago until January 29

Watch documentation of Pope.L’s The Escape at The Art Institute of Chicago until January 29

Through January 29, 2019

Video documentation of Pope.L's The Escape, an experimental restaging of one of the earliest extant pieces of African American dramatic literature: the 1859 play The Escape; or, A Leap to Freedom by the abolitionist and freed black slave William Wells Brown, will be available publicity for a limited time. 

Monica Bonvicini and Pope.L in the Foundation for Contemporary Arts 2018 Benefit Exhibition

Monica Bonvicini and Pope.L in the Foundation for Contemporary Arts 2018 Benefit Exhibition

Adam McEwen Selects: Exhibition to Benefit the Foundation for Contemporary Arts

November 29 – December 15, 2018

Monica Bonvicini and Pope.L are included in Foundation for Contemporary Art's sixteenth benefit exhibition, "Adam McEwen Selects: Exhibition to Benefit the Foundation for Contemporary Arts," on view November 29 through December 15 at Gladstone Gallery. All proceeds benefit FCA, the non-for-profit organization founded in 1963 by Jasper Johns and John Cage. 

Pope.L at the Art Institute of Chicago

Pope.L at the Art Institute of Chicago

The Escape

November 15 – December 6, 2018

Pope.L’s The Escape is an experimental restaging of one of the earliest extant pieces of African American dramatic literature: the 1858 play The Escape; or, A Leap to Freedom by the abolitionist and freed black slave William Wells Brown. Through comedy and critique, Brown’s story charts the push and pull of sex, power, and black agency on a Southern plantation before the Civil War. Pope.L’s rendition deconstructs and reassembles fragments of the original play, agitating and transfiguring the material in the process.

Bid on Pope.L in The Kitchen Benefit Art Auction

Bid on Pope.L in The Kitchen Benefit Art Auction

November 13, 2018

Bid on Pope.L in The Kitchen Benefit Art Auction Tuesday, November 13, at The Kitchen

Bid on Pope.L in the Independent Curators International (ICI) 2018 Benefit & Auction

Bid on Pope.L in the Independent Curators International (ICI) 2018 Benefit & Auction

October 23, 2018

Bid on Pope.L in the Independent Curators International (ICI) 2018 Annual Benefit & Auction, now live on Artsy through October 23, 2018 at 10:30 pm EDT. 

Pope.L in conversation with Noam Segal

Pope.L in conversation with Noam Segal

534 west 26th Street

Wednesday, October 3 at 7:30 PM

Please join us on Wednesday, October 3 for a conversation with Pope.L and Noam Segal at the gallery's Chelsea location. 

Pope.L in Seattle
Exhibition | Seattle

Pope.L in Seattle

Becoming American

August 4 – September 30, 2018

Pope.L is included in Becoming American, an international group exhibition curated by Fionn Meade and sited on the grounds of the American and English camps on San Juan Island, WA, and satellite venues in Seattle. 

Jay DeFeo & Pope.L at Secession
Exhibition | Vienna

Jay DeFeo & Pope.L at Secession

Other Mechanisms

June 29 – September 2, 2018

Jay DeFeo and Pope.L are included in the group exhibition Other Mechanisms, curated by Anthony Huberman, at Secession. 

Pope.L at the Carnegie Museum of Art

Pope.L at the Carnegie Museum of Art

Crossroads: Carnegie Museum of Art's Collection, 1945 to Now

Currently on view

Recently acquired by the museum, Pope.L's Fountain (reparations version) (2016-17) is now on view at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Crossroads, curated by Eric Crosby. 

Pope.L at La Panacée

Pope.L at La Panacée

One thing after another

June 2 – August 26, 2018

La Panacée presents Pope.L's first major solo exhibition in France, One thing after another, on view in Montpellier through August 26, 2018. The exhibition includes early and recent work, as well as a new site-responsive project, in which Pope.L questions our relationship to and structuring of logic and knowledge within an ongoing irreverence to social construction.

Pope.L reading and conversation at The Underground Museum

Pope.L reading and conversation at The Underground Museum

The Cypress

August 9, 2018

X-TRA presents a reading of "The Cypress," an original short story by Pope.L commissioned for the X-TRA Artist Writes program. A conversation between the artist and curator Hamza Walker will follow. The program is hosted by The Underground Museum in Los Angeles. 

 

Martha Rosler and Pope.L at Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid
Exhibition | Madrid

Martha Rosler and Pope.L at Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid

Elements of vogue. A Case Study in Radical Performance

November 17, 2017 – May 6, 2018

Martha Rosler and Pope.L are included in the group exhibition Elements of vogue. A Case Study in Radical Performance at CA2M, Madrid. 

Pope.L joins NYU Institute of Fine Arts' Board of Trustees
News

Pope.L joins NYU Institute of Fine Arts' Board of Trustees

April 3, 2018

Pope.L, along with Jennifer Russell and Rachel G. Wilf, is the newest member of the NYU Institute of Fine Arts' Board of Trustees. 

Watch Pope.L in Make T Something for T Magazine

Watch Pope.L in Make T Something for T Magazine

By United Labor

March 2, 2018

Using only a few select materials, Pope.L creates something – and turns it into a performance form beginning to end. 

Jay DeFeo & Pope.L at the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

Jay DeFeo & Pope.L at the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

Mechanisms

October 12, 2017 - February 24, 2018

Jay DeFeo and Pope.L are included in the Wattis Instutute for Contemporary Arts' exhibition, Mechanisms

Pope.L at École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon
Exhibition | Lyon

Pope.L at École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon

Citizen Collision – contre l'architecture

January 18 – February 10, 2018

Pope.L is included in the group exhibtion Citizen Collision – contre l'architecturecurated by Simon Bergala, at École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon. 

Pope.L at Williams College Museum of Art
Exhibition | Williamstown, Massachusetts

Pope.L at Williams College Museum of Art

Active Ingredients: Prompts, Props, Performance

October 20, 2017 – January 7, 2018

At the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) Active Ingredients: Prompts, Props, Performance flips the script on the performativity of art objects and the objectness of human performers. This two-part show consists of both a theatrical event and a gallery-based exhibition. Together, the two parts reverse the common distinction of performance as “live” and art objects as “dead.”

Pope.L at Logan Center Gallery at the Art Institute of Chicago

Pope.L at Logan Center Gallery at the Art Institute of Chicago

Brown People Are the Wrens in the Parking Lot

November 10, 2017 – January 7, 2018

Brown People Are the Wrens in the Parking Lot was intitated by artist and University of Chicago Department of  VIsual Arts Faculty member Pope.L, and facilitated by faculty, students, staff and community members of the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts to reflect on issues of connectedness, home and immigration. The exhibition is on view from November 10, 2017 through January 7, 2018 in the Logan Center Gallery and gathers various ephemera from the campaign as well as serves as a space for open conversation, relaxation and reflection.

Pope.L at KADIST
Exhibition | San Francisco

Pope.L at KADIST

If Not Apollo, the Breeze

October 11 – December 16, 2017

If Not Apollo, the Breeze, curated by Jordan Stein, takes the literary history of the ancient oracle at Delphi as its starting point to explore the irrational, ambiguous, infallible, portentous, performative, hallucinatory, and predictive. Like the oracle itself, the exhibition presents a series of coded messages that address a future that is both hard to discern and right under our feet, like a road. Nine artists and one underground newspaper are included.

Pope.L at What Pipeline

Pope.L at What Pipeline

Flint Water Project

September 7 - October 21, 2017

Chicago-based artist Pope.L, who has been making public interventionist art for over twenty years, comes to Detroit artist-run gallery What Pipeline with Flint Water, on view September 7 through October 21, 2017. Conceived by Pope.L as one Midwest city helping another, both struck by similar blight, Flint Water is an art installation, a performance and an intervention that calls attention to the water crisis in Flint by bottling Flint tap water and putting it on display in Detroit. 

Pope.L in conversation with Christopher Y. Lew
Artist Talk | New York

Pope.L in conversation with Christopher Y. Lew

The Whitney Museum of American Art

October 19, 2017

Christopher Y. Lew, Nancy and Fred Poses Associate Curator and co-curator of the 2017 Biennial, joins Pope.L to discuss his practice in context of contemporary art in America.

Pope.L at Pratt Institute
Exhibition | New York

Pope.L at Pratt Institute

Survey Exhibition (part I): Camerado, this is no book

October 7 – 15, 2017

This survey exhibition, presented in two parts, brings together the artworks of participants within Pratt Institute’s program over the course of the past 125-plus years. Part one, Camerado, this is no book, curated by Jenni Crain, takes its title from Walt Whitman’s poem “So Long!” first published as the final poem in the third release of Leaves of Grass in 1860. 

Pope.L in Documenta14

Pope.L in Documenta14

Whispering Campaign

June 10 - September 17, 2017

Mitchell-Innes & Nash congratulates Pope.L on his inclusion in documenta 14 for which he conceived a new sound performance piece that takes place partially in the streets. The "Whispering Campaign" will run for the 100 days in both Athens and Kassel. Five performers will wander throughout designated areas of the city either broadcasting a pre-recorded score in English, Greek and German or whispering live their observations as they roam the city. 

Performances occur Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays in designated areas throughout both cities. In addition to the live performances occurring three days a week, there will be several broadcasts of the pre-recorded text will play at select documenta 14 venues.

WHITNEY MUSEUM ANNOUNCES 2017 BUCKSBAUM AWARD TO POPE.L

WHITNEY MUSEUM ANNOUNCES 2017 BUCKSBAUM AWARD TO POPE.L

Mitchell-Innes & Nash congratulates Pope.L on receiving this year’s Bucksbaum Award.

Established in 2000 by longtime Whitney Museum of American Art trustee Melva Bucksbaum and her family, the Bucksbaum Award recognizes an artist included in the Whitney Biennial “who has previously produced a significant body of work, whose project for the Biennial is itself outstanding, and whose future artistic contribution promises to be lasting.”

Pope.L at University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum
Exhibition | Tampa

Pope.L at University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum

BLACK PULP!

June 2 - July 22, 2017

BLACK PULP! was first exhibited at the International Print Center New York and will travel to the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University in Middletown Connecticut. 

Pope.L at Martos Gallery
Exhibition | New York

Pope.L at Martos Gallery

Invisible Man

May 3 - June 24, 2017

Pope.L is included in the group exhibition, Invisible Man, at Martos Gallery. 

Pope.L in Documenta14

Pope.L in Documenta14

Whispering Campaign

April 8 - July 16, 2017

Mitchell-Innes & Nash congratulates Pope.L on his inclusion in documenta 14 for which he conceived a new sound performance piece that takes place partially in the streets. The "Whispering Campaign" will run for the 100 days in both Athens and Kassel. Five performers will wander throughout designated areas of the city either broadcasting a pre-recorded score in English, Greek and German or whispering live their observations as they roam the city. 

Performances occur Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays in designated areas throughout both cities. In addition to the live performances occurring three days a week, there will be several broadcasts of the pre-recorded text will play at select documenta 14 venues.

GCC, Leigh Ledare & Pope.L in the 2017 Whitney Biennial

GCC, Leigh Ledare & Pope.L in the 2017 Whitney Biennial

March 17, 2017 - June 11, 2017

Mitchell-Innes & Nash congratulates GCC, Leigh Ledare and Pope.L on their inclusion in the 2017 Whitney Biennial co-curated by Christopher Y. Lew and Mia Locks.

Pope.L at The Barnes Foundation

Pope.L at The Barnes Foundation

Person of the Crowd: The Contemporary Art of Flânerie

February 25 - May 22, 2017

Pope.L is included in The Barnes Foundation's exhibition, Person of the Crowd: The Contemporary Art of Flânerie, which features work by more than 50 international artists who have taken to the street to play detective, make fantastic maps, scavenge and shop for new materials, launch guerrilla campaigns, and make provocative spectacles of themselves to speak to issues as diverse as commodity fetishism, gentrification, gender politics, globalization, racism, and homelessness. 

Pope.L at Purchase College, SUNY

Pope.L at Purchase College, SUNY

Punching Up

February 22 - March 24, 2017

Pope.L is included in the exhibtion, Punching Up, at The Richard and Dolly Maass Gallery at Purchase College, SUNY. 

Pope.L at The Museum of Modern at Art Warsaw

Pope.L at The Museum of Modern at Art Warsaw

PLAMA/THE SPOT

October 2016

PLAMA is a tv spot Pope.L produced in October 2016 in Warsaw. The spot had its premiere in Poland on November 10, on the eve of the Independence Day in Warsaw and two days past the presidential elections in the U.S.

A conversation with Pope.L

A conversation with Pope.L

São Paulo Biennal

September 19, 2016

Pope.L talks about his most recent performance, Baile, at the São Paulo Biennal. 

Pope.L in the São Paulo Bienal

Pope.L in the São Paulo Bienal

Baile, a new performance by Pope.L

September 7 - 10, 2016

Mitchell-Innes & Nash is pleased to announce a new performance piece conceived by Pope.L for the 32nd São Paulo Bienal. 

Pope.L in Unlimited at Art Basel

Pope.L in Unlimited at Art Basel

June 13, 2016

Mitchell-Innes & Nash announces The Problem, a new performance piece conceived by Pope.L staged for the opening of Unlimited during Art Basel in Basel. 

Pope.L at The Walker Art Center

Pope.L at The Walker Art Center

Less Than One

April 7 - December 31, 2016

Less Than One is an international, multigenerational group show offering in-depth presentations of work from the 1960s to the present by 16 artists central to the Walker’s collection. Included alongside such signature artworks as Sigmar Polke’s Mrs. Autumn and Her Two Daughters (1991) are major acquisitions on view here for the first time, including Ericka Beckman’s You The Better, Film Installation (1983/2015), Adrian Piper’s The Mythic Being: Sol’s Drawing #1–5 (1974), and Renée Green’s Bequest (1991), among other featured pieces.

Pope.L Performance at Art Basel Miami Beach

Pope.L Performance at Art Basel Miami Beach

December 1-2, 2015

Curated by Nicholas Baume, Director and Chief Curator of the Public Art Fund, this year's Art Basel Miami Beach Puclic sector will feature The Beautiful, a new performance by Pope.L.

Pope.L at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Pope.L at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Cage Unrequited

Nov 21–22, 2015

Cage Unrequited is a 25-hour marathon reading of experimental composer John Cage’s influential book Silence: Lectures and Writings (1961) organized by visual artist Pope.L. The performance reimagines the book for contemporary audiences by filtering a bit of the past through the voices and attitudes of a diverse community of more than 100 invited readers from Chicago.

Pope.L in the The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now

Pope.L in the The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

July 11 - November 22, 2015

The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now links the vibrant legacy of the 1960s African American avant-garde to current art and culture. It is occasioned in part by the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a still-flourishing organization of Chicago musicians whose interdisciplinary explorations expanded the boundaries of jazz. Alongside visual arts collectives such as the African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA), the AACM was part of a deep engagement with black cultural nationalism both in Chicago and around the world during and after the civil rights era. Combining historical materials with contemporary responses, The Freedom Principle illuminates the continued relevance of that engagement today.

Pope.L at the Arts Center at Governors Island, New York

Pope.L at the Arts Center at Governors Island, New York

(Counter) Public Art, Intervention & Performance in Lower Manhattan from 1978–1993

May 23 – Sunday, September 27, 2015

The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council with curators Alex Fialho & Melissa Levin have arranged (Counter) Public Art, Intervention & Performance in Lower Manhattan from 1978–1993: an exhibition featuring artwork and documentation of public art, performance and interventions by Agnes Denes, Eiko & Koma, the Guerilla Girls, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Tehching Hsieh, John Kelly, Pope.L, REPOhistory, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the collaborative co-creators of Electric Blanket (Allen Frame, Frank Franca and Nan Goldin), and more.

Brent Wadden & Pope.L in White Columns Benefit Exhibition & Auction

Brent Wadden & Pope.L in White Columns Benefit Exhibition & Auction

Benefit Auction: May 20, 7 pm

May 2 - 20, 2015

Brent Wadden and Pope.L will participate in the 2015 White Columns Benefit Auction and Exhibition. The exhibition is currently on view and will close with the auction on May 20th at 7 pm.

Caption: Brent Wadden, natural / gray single, 2014

Pope.L: Trinket

Pope.L: Trinket

The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles

March 20 - June 28, 2015

Pope.L: Trinket is an exhibition of new and recent work by the Chicago-based artist, an essential figure in the development of performance and body art since the 1970s. The exhibition will be installed in the soaring spaces of the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and is comprised of large-scale installations, and features a new performance and sculpture work made specifically for the exhibition. Pope.L: Trinket is curated by MOCA Senior Curator Bennett Simpson.
 

Pope.L's "The Limner Performance" published by Triple Canopy

Pope.L's "The Limner Performance" published by Triple Canopy

November 20, 2014

A preface is usually written after the fact. And so is this thing you are about to read.

A performance of the text occurred on April 26, 2014 at the Whitney Museum of American Art and was enacted by five street artists (four Chinese and one Caucasian) who drew sketches of the audience. On my signal, they threw these sketches into the air. A dancer playing a waitress repeatedly dropped napkins beneath a sound track of drones, trains, and rains and me, yours truly, at the podium voicing a version of the text that follows. What does a preface ever really tell us? That something else follows. And the thing, the thing that follows, preceded the thing with which you first started.zzZ

Pope.L at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Pope.L at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art

July 24, 2014 - January 4, 2015

This groundbreaking exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of performance art by black artists working from the perspective of the visual arts from the 1960s to the present. While black performance has been largely contextualized as an extension of theater, visual artists have integrated performance into their work for more than five decades, generating an important history that has gone largely unrecognized until now.

Pope.L performance at The Whitney Museum of American Art

Pope.L performance at The Whitney Museum of American Art

Triple Canopy's Media Replication Services

April 26, 2014 at 6:30 pm

Pope.L will participate in Triple Canopy's Media Replication Services at The Whitney Museum of American Art on April 26, 2014 at 6:30 pm.

Pope.L will join scholar Lisa Gitelman and poet Caroline Bergvall in considering the various forms of reproduction enacted in Triple Canopy's 2014 Biennial installation, Pointing Machines.  Media Replication Services and Pointing Machines are components of Triple Canopy’s contribution to the Whitney Biennial.  Tickets for the event may be purchased in advance by clicking here

For more information on the event and Triple Canopy, please click here.

Pope.L at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia

Pope.L at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia

Ruffneck Constructivists

February 12 - August 17, 2014

Ruffneck Constructivists, a group exhibition curated by artist Kara Walker brings together eleven international artists in order to define a contemporary manifesto of urban architecture and change. On view in ICA's First Floor Space from February 12 through August 17, 2014, the exhibition features sculpture, photography, and video. As Walker states, "Ruffneck Constructivists are defiant shapers of environments. Whatever their gender affiliation, Ruffnecks go hard when all around them they see weakness, softness, compromise, sermonizing, poverty, and lack; they don't change the world through conscious actions, instead they build themselves into the world one assault at a time."

Pope.L Performs 'Cage Unrequited'

Pope.L Performs 'Cage Unrequited'

Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center

November 16 - 17, 2013 10:58 AM - 11:57 AM

Iconic performance artist Pope.L's Cage Unrequited is a marathon reading of John Cage’s edited anthology, Silence: Lectures and Writings (1961) by over eighty invited collaborators. The performance functions as a refuge, proposing a relationship between the earlier artist’s ideas of indeterminacy, mysticism and chance and the work of contemporary black artists.

Pope.L at the Studio Museum in Harlem

Pope.L at the Studio Museum in Harlem

Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art

November 14 - March 9, 2013

Providing a critical history beginning with Fluxus and Conceptual art in the early 1960s through present-day practices, Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art chronicles the emergence and development of black performance art over three generations, presenting a rich and complex look at this important facet of contemporary art. The exhibition comprises more than 100 works by some 36 artists, including video and photo documentation of performances, performance scores and installations, interactive works, and artworks created as a result of performance actions.

Pope.L at the Grey Art Gallery

Pope.L at the Grey Art Gallery

Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art

September 10 - December 7, 2013

Radical Presence chronicles the emergence and develop-
ment of African American performance practices in contemporary art. Surveying the scene from the 1960s to the present day, this major exhibition examines the rich and complex history of black performance in the United States. The show features work of artists such as Benjamin Patterson, David Hammons, Senga Nengudi, and Coco Fusco.

A series of performances by participating artists accompanies the exhibition, which is presented in two parts: Part I, Sept. 10– Dec. 7, 2013, at the Grey Art Gallery, NYU; Part II, Nov. 14, 2013–Mar. 9, 2014, at The Studio Museum in Harlem. Radical Presence is organized by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.

Support Pope.L's performance Pull!

Support Pope.L's performance Pull!

Looking for Participants and Donations

June 7 - 9, 2013

Pope.L in collaboration with the arts organization SPACES, has challenged the city of Cleveland to help him pull an 8 ton former ice cream truck, by hand, 34 miles from the eastside of the city to the westside over 3 days, June 7 to 9. And he needs your help to do it.

Pope.L at the Renaissance Society, University of Chicago

Pope.L at the Renaissance Society, University of Chicago

April 28 - June 23, 2013

The Renaissance Society is proud to conclude its 2012-13 season with Forlesen, a new installation by Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist Pope.L.

Pope.L performance at the Whitney Museum

Pope.L performance at the Whitney Museum

Exhibition runs through April 28, 2013

Friday April 19, 2013

Blues for Smoke is an interdisciplinary exhibition that explores a wide range of contemporary art through the lens of the blues and blues aesthetics. In conjunction with Blues for Smoke, Pope.L will stage a performance and hands-on project that invites visitors to explore the definitions surrounding the blues, and ask how the blues “aesthetic” has migrated over place and time.

Pope.L in Radical Presence at CAMH

Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art

November 2012

Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, the first comprehensive survey of performance art by black visual artists.

Pope.L in superHUMAN at Central Utah Art Center

Pope.L in superHUMAN at Central Utah Art Center

Friday, June 8 –Friday, August 3, 2012

superHUMAN Friday, June 8 –Friday, August 3, 2012 Central Utah Art Center (CUAC) 86 N Main, Ephraim, Utah 84627 Thursday, September 6–Saturday, December 22, 2012 Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art 591 Broad Street, Newark, NJ 07102 Artists Blanka Amezkua, Edgar Arcenaux, Kevin Darmanie, Kurt Forman, Chitra Ganesh, Fay Ku, Shaun El C. Leonardo, Kerry James Marshall, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, Dulce Pinzón, Pope.L, Robert Pruitt, Xaviera Simmons, Saya Woolfalk Curated by Jorge Rojas and David Hawkins

Pope.L "Reenactor" at Williams Center Gallery
News

Pope.L "Reenactor" at Williams Center Gallery

Lafayette College, February 11- March 17. 2012

Video of Pope.L performance at MoMA

Video of Pope.L performance at MoMA

MoMA Case Study: Pope.L Inteprets "Fluxkit"

Last month, artist Pope.L spent a day at MoMA, exploring the collections of artists’ multiples on view in Thing/Thought: Fluxus Editions, 1962–1978. While he was here, he produced the above performance video, which incorporates the Fluxkit to incredibly humorous effect. His visit concluded a series of collaborations with visiting artists—some of them original members of Fluxus—who had been invited to select objects from the two Fluxkits on display, which are similar but not identical, and determine their arrangement. Since the late 1970s, Pope.L has produced innovative performances and installations, often tackling potent topics of race and inequality. His interventionist approach frequently involves the public; he interacts with communities, taking on the role of provocateur. At MoMA, Pope.L addressed the institutional paradigms of the Museum. His unconventional arrangement of the Fluxus objects is on view until January 16, when the exhibition closes to the public.

Pope.L at Prospect.2

Pope.L at Prospect.2

October 22, 2011 - January 29, 2012

Performance artist and sculptor Pope.L will present a performance and video installation entitled Blink at Prospect.2 New Orleans, the second edition of the international contemporary art biennial. For the work, the artist asked New Orleans residents to donate photos of themselves in response to the questions: "When you dream of New Orleans, what do you dream of? When you wake up in the morning, what do you see?" These donated images will be part of a video installation mounted on a truck – a modern, traveling version of a “magic lantern” projection – that will traverse the city of New Orleans from sundown on October 22, 2011 through sunrise the following day. The video, intended to be a collective “memory bank” of the residents of New Orleans, will be stationed at Xavier University's Art Village following the performance for the duration of the biennial.

Pope.L at Eastside Projects

Pope.L at Eastside Projects

"CHILD", September 17- November 5, 2011

Launch 6-8 pm, September 16, 2011 "CHILD" is a new major three screen video commission and film-set installation in the main gallery of Eastside Projects, Birmingham UK. The work seeks to create an atmosphere of melodrama, strangeness and oddness informed by the artist's background in theatre and performance art. The exhibition draws upon the existing context of the gallery and its surroundings combining with the cinematic references. "CHILD" is about a small troubled family coping with the long absence and return of the father. Pope.L continues to construct surprising and unique work around the dispersion and coalescing of matter, values and concepts of what it means to be alive

Pope.L at White Flag Projects

Pope.L at White Flag Projects

Another Kind of Vapor

June 18 - July 23

IAIN BAXTER & Robert Heinecken David Lieske Paul McCarthy Otto Piene Pope.L Dieter Roth Ed Ruscha Jennifer West Curated by Jenny Gheith and John McKinnon Taking inspiration from Dieter Roth's now legendary exhibition "Staple Cheese (A Race)", "Another Kind of Vapor" presents artists who have experimented with non-traditional materials. Some sculpt, mold, and print with these substances, others conserve marks and stains. Allowed to decay, decompose, or remain in stasis, these objects endure as symbols of impermanence, waste, memory, and time.

Pope.L Flux This at MoMA

Pope.L Flux This at MoMA

Friday, March 25, Celeste Bartos Theater

Flux This, with Pope.L and Special Guests Museum of Modern Art, New York Instructions, proposals, notions, a phone call, and a trampoline. A day and a half of Fluxus-inspired-and-disgusted workshops, performances, video, and interventions, concluding with an evening of short things and even shorter things. Everyone is invited! 12:00–6:30 p.m. in the Cullman Education Building mezzanine and classrooms (admission is free) 6:30 p.m. in the Celeste Bartos Theater (T3) (tickets required) Open rehearsals for this event take place on March 24. In conjunction with the exhibitions Instruction Lab and Contemporary Art from the Collection Tickets for the 6:30 p.m. theater event ($10; $8 members; $5 students, seniors, staff of other museums) can be purchased online or at the lobby information desk and the film desk.

Pope.L at FIAC

Pope.L at FIAC

October 21 - 24

Pope.L at FIAC, Paris, October 21 - 24 Booth A40 – Mitchell-Innes & Nash New York, September, 2010: Mitchell-Innes & Nash will present a solo booth featuring Pope.L at FIAC, Paris from October 21 through 24. The works on view, dating from the 1990s to the present, will include sculpture, photographs, painting and drawing, as well as a performance in the FIAC booth.

Pope.L at the New Museum

Pope.L at the New Museum

October 6, 2010 - January 9, 2011

Mitchell-Innes & Nash is pleased to announce Pope.L's "Eating the Wall Street Journal" in the exhibition "The Last Newspaper" at the New Museum. Pope.L will supervise a performative restaging of this seminal work enlisting a team of collaborators to occasionally wander throughout the museum eating the financial daily.

Pope.L Cusp
News

Pope.L Cusp

Performance

An endurance performance taking place Saturday afternoons throughout Pope.L's exhibition, landscape + object + animal.

Performance Times:
Saturday May 8 5:15pm 6:30pm
Sunday May 9 2pm 3:15pm 4:30pm
Monday May 10 2pm 3:15pm 4:30pm
Saturday May 15 2pm 3:15pm 4:30pm
Saturday May 22 3:15pm 4:30pm
Saturday May 29 2pm 3:15pm 4:30pm
Saturday June 5 2pm 3:15pm 4:30pm
Saturday June 12 2pm 3:15pm 4:30pm
Saturday June 19 2pm 3:15pm 4:30pm

Pope.L talk at the New School

Pope.L talk at the New School

Monday April 19th

Mitchell-Innes & Nash is pleased to announce Pope.L's participation in SCULPTURECENTER AT THE NEW SCHOOL Expanded, Exploded, Collapsed? Monday, April 19, 2010 – 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The New School, Theresa Lang Community and Student Center 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor Admission: $8, free for all students as well as SculptureCenter members and New School faculty, staff, and alumni with ID.

Pope.L in the DeCordova Biennial

Pope.L in the DeCordova Biennial

January 23 - April 11, 2010

Mitchell-Innes & Nash is pleased to announce Pope.L in the DeCordova Biennial. The 2010 DeCordova Biennial exhibition is the newest iteration in DeCordova's long history of showcasing contemporary art in New England. The museum is located at 51 Sandy Pond Rd, Lincoln, MA and is open Tuesday-Sunday from 10-5 and select holidays. Please call 781 259-8355 for more information.

Pope.L's Black Factory at ABMB

Pope.L's Black Factory at ABMB

December 3-6 at the Botanical Gardens

"The Black Factory does not make blackness, it performs blackness. Sometimes the performance is a conversation, sometimes a provocation, sometimes its a commodity, sometimes its losing your commodities and sleeping at the shelter, sometimes its working in the soup kitchen of that shelter, sometimes the performance of blackness is simply an idea bearing on some distant resemblance from which I will always say: From here I dare to begin."
- Pope.L

Pope.L Reinvents Allan Kaprow's Yard

Pope.L Reinvents Allan Kaprow's Yard

Opening September 23 at Hauser and Wirth New York

September 23 – October 24, 2009 Opening: Wednesday, September 23, 6 – 8 pm Hauser & Wirth New York 32 East 69th Street New York NY 10021

Pope.L at the Carpenter Center

Pope.L at the Carpenter Center

February 19 - April 5, 2009

Performance by the Corbu Pop Singers and reception Thursday, February 19 following the 6 pm Carpenter Center Lecture by Pope.L

Pope.L at the Rubell Collection
News

Pope.L at the Rubell Collection

December 3 - November 28, 2009

Mitchell-Innes & Nash is pleased to announce the participation of Pope.L in the exhibition, "30 Americans," at the Rubell Family Collection. December 3, 2008 – November 28, 2009 Rubell Family Collection 95 NW 29th Street Miami, Florida 33127 Phone: (305) 573-6090 

Open to the public: December 3, 2008 – May 30, 2009 Wednesday through Saturday 10 AM – 6 PM Art Basel 2008 Hours: December 3, 9 AM – 6 PM December 4, 8 AM – 6 PM December 5 – 9, 9 AM – 6 PM

Pope.L: Animal Nationalism

Pope.L: Animal Nationalism

Grand Arts Kansas City September 5 - October 18

Animal Nationalism is comprised of two works: "Trinket," a large-scale, publicly accessible installation at the Exhibition Hall at the Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City Convention Center, and a video and performance piece called "Small Cup" at Grand Arts.