1955 – 2023
American visual artist Pope.L (also known as William Pope.L) was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1955. He worked across painting, writing, photography, video, sculpture and theatre, but is perhaps best known for his work in absurdist performance and interventionist public art. Pope.L attended the Pratt Institute from 1973 to 1975 and participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program from 1977 to 1978. He received his BA from Montclair State University, New Jersey in 1978 before completing his MA in visual arts from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1981.
Pope.L built on his history of provocative performances and public interventions to apply some of the same social, formal and performative methods to his interests in language, gender, race and community. He claimed that the goals for his works were “Joy, money and uncertainty—not necessarily in that order.”
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Pope.L: “The problem still itches. The wound will not close”
