Art & Culture

Visionary Artist Pope.L Mounts 3 Exhibitions Across New York City

This fall, the artist’s installations and performance pieces can be seen at the Public Art Fund, MoMA, and Whitney

By Lucy Rees

August 27, 2019

Neon sign reading "Right Turn for Reparations" on a brick building at night with cityscape in the background. — Pope.L’s chmera, installed on the High Line in 2018. Photo: Courtesy of the artist

Abstract light reflection resembling a basketball hoop on a wall background. — *Reflections of water in test tank in Artist studio, Choir,* July 3, 2018. Courtesy of the artist

It’s not often that an artist can claim three major institutional exhibitions taking place simultaneously in one city, but that’s exactly what’s happening for Pope.L, a visionary African-American artist whose provocative performances and interventions in public spaces have been shaking up the status quo for the past four decades.

First up is “Conquest,” a project with New York’s Public Art Fund, where over a hundred people take part in one of the artist’s iconic “crawls,” a radical act where participants drag their body across city streets on September 21.

Then, kicking off on October 21, the Museum of Modern Art will host an exhibition focusing on 13 of Pope.L’s most career-defining works, including ATM Piece (1997) and Eating the Wall Street Journal (2002), a performance where he chewed on a stack of newspapers to challenge society’s obsession with wealth and power.

Person dressed as a roller skate on the ground near a "Police Line Do Not Cross" barricade on a city street. — *The Great White Way, 22 Miles, 9 Years, 1 Street,* 2000-09. Courtesy of the artist

On October 10, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Pope.L will unveil Choir, a continuously flowing fountain system where the sound of water being funneled through copper pipes into a massive tank will be mixed with historical audio recordings and amplified beyond the gallery in a powerfully immersive experience. “Pope.L’s longtime investigation of materials, identity, and society has deep resonance with the challenges that the U.S. faces now,” says Whitney curator Christopher Lew. “He is at the top of his game, making some of the most incisive and powerful work of the moment.”