William Pope.L (1955-2023)

Pope.L, visual artist and educator, died suddenly on December 23 at his home in Chicago. He was sixty-eight.

In his multidisciplinary practice he used binaries, contraries and preconceived notions embedded within contemporary culture to create art works in various formats, for example, writing, painting, performance, installation, video and sculpture. Building upon his long history of enacting arduous, provocative, absurdist performances and interventions in public spaces, Pope.L applied some of the same social, formal and performative strategies to his interests in language, system, gender, race and community. The goals for his work were several: joy, money and uncertainty— not necessarily in that order.