Pope.L, a conceptual artist who labored in efficiency, sculpture and set up, died unexpectedly final week on the age of 68. His provocative works typically happen exterior of galleries and museums, permitting viewers to see the darker facet of the artist, however with implications and commentary on race, language, and humanity.
The American artist, who was born in Newark, New Jersey and now lives in Chicago, is greatest recognized for his “crawling works”: performances by which he strikes by the town on his palms and knees. In these and different works, artists use absurd, surprising settings to focus on unstated assumptions about race. For instance, his “Pores and skin Go well with” drawings define confrontational and illogical statements about race (akin to “White persons are negotiable”) in capital letters on graph paper. One other noteworthy work, flint water (2017), noticed the artist bottle contaminated water from Michigan Metropolis, making seen the infrastructural neglect confronted by Black communities.
Over the previous decade, Pope.L has acquired growing institutional acclaim: In 2017, he acquired the $100,000 Bucksbaum Prize for his participation within the Whitney Biennial, an set up commissioned by 2,755 It consists of slices of bologna meat, marinated through the exhibition, and is accompanied by images of New Yorkers. In 2019, he had three complementary exhibitions in New York with the Museum of Fashionable Artwork, the Whitney Museum, and the Public Artwork Basis. His present exhibition on the South London gallery, Hospital (on view till February 11), is a profession survey of kinds: a set of installations that reconfigure previous works.
Pope L.’s demise was introduced by the galleries representing him: Vielmetter Los Angeles, Fashionable Artwork, and Mitchell-Innes and Nash.
