Pope.L

Pope.L (June 28, 1955 – December 23, 2023) was an American interdisciplinary artist, writer, performer, theater-maker, and educator whose conceptually driven practice examined race, class, language, gender, power, labor, and social inequality. Working across performance, drawing, painting, installation, sculpture, video, photography, text, and theater, he used absurdity, endurance, humor, discomfort, and contradiction to expose the unstable systems through which people and communities are categorized, marginalized, and made visible. He frequently described himself as a “fisherman of social absurdity,” positioning art as a way of asking difficult questions rather than delivering fixed political conclusions.  Pope.L is especially known for the physically demanding Crawl performances he began in 1978. In works including Times Square Crawl, Tompkins Square Crawl, and The Great White Way: 22 miles, 9 years, 1 street, he moved through public space on his hands, knees, elbows, or stomach, sometimes wearing a business suit or Superman costume. By surrendering what he called “verticality,” Pope.L drew attention to homelessness, poverty, racial inequality, physical vulnerability, and the unequal ways bodies are permitted to occupy urban space.  Pope.L studied at Pratt Institute, earned a BA from Montclair State College in 1978, attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, and received an MFA from Rutgers University in 1981. He taught at Bates College for approximately two decades before joining the University of Chicago, where he became a tenured professor in the Department of Visual Arts. His work was presented internationally at the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Art Institute of Chicago, Walker Art Center, South London Gallery, Documenta, the São Paulo Biennial, and numerous other institutions. He died in Chicago in 2023.