Gladstone Gallery now represents the property of Pope.L, the boundary-crossing artist whose performances and conceptual artwork left an indelible mark on up to date artwork. The gallery will mount its first solo present for the artist in 2027 in New York.
Gladstone will symbolize Pope.L with Fashionable Artwork in London and Vielmetter Los Angeles, which each represented the artist on the time of his loss of life in December 2023. (At the moment, Pope.L was additionally represented by Mitchell-Innes & Nash, which closed its New York house the next June.)
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“Pope.L was a ground-breaking visionary artist in his lifetime,” Gladstone associate Gavin Brown stated in a press release, “and since his premature loss of life, his huge affect and affect have come into greater aid and solely proceed to develop. We really feel so privileged at Gladstone to be part of persevering with his legacy.”
Over the course of 4 a long time, Pope.L produced a physique of labor that was typically arduous to categorise, however that at its core handled the expertise of Black Individuals. His most well-known performances concerned him consuming the Wall Road Journal or traversing sections of New York on arms and knees.
Pope.L, Consuming the Wall Road Journal (avenue model) from How A lot is That Nigger within the Window, 1991, efficiency nonetheless.
Picture James Pruznick/©The Property of Pope.L/Courtesy the Property and Gladstone
He first began his “Crawls” collection in 1978, however his most well-known one, carried out in elements from 2001 to 2009, noticed him crawl the size of Manhattan whereas carrying a Superman go well with and having a skateboard strapped to his again. The Nice White Means, 22 Miles, 9 Years, 1 Road, as that work was referred to as, nodded to “the problem of reaching freedom whereas additionally not directly hinting at an exploration of the racism that hinders that quest,” as Alex Greenberger wrote in Pope.L’s ARTnews obituary.
In 2015, he memorably staged an exhibition on the Museum of Modern Artwork in Los Angeles that included Trinket, a 16-by-45-foot US flag that, over the course of the exhibition, was ultimately frayed and torn other than numerous high-velocity followers being blown at it. MOCA acquired the work in 2023. His work can also be held by the Artwork Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Museum of Artwork, and the Museum of Fashionable Artwork.
Pope.L, Trinket, 2008/2015, set up view, at Museum of Modern Artwork, Los Angeles, 2015.
©The Property of Pope.L/Courtesy the Property, Museum of Modern Artwork, Los Angeles, and Gladstone
His work has been included in main exhibitions together with Documenta 14 in 2017, the 2016 São Paulo Biennale, the 2002 and 2017 Whitney Biennials, together with his work within the latter version profitable him the distinguished Bucksbaum Award, which comes with $100,000. Following that win, he had a solo exhibition on the Whitney Museum in 2019, the identical yr as his MoMA retrospective. An exhibition surveying his works on paper will open on the Drawing Heart in New York this spring.
“Pope.L defied boundaries together with his improvements throughout visible, efficiency, and conceptual artwork,” Gladstone senior associate Max Falkenstein stated in a press release. “His work left a profound mark on tradition at massive, shaping and provoking a large group of artists working at this time. We’re proud to symbolize his legacy and be sure that his affect continues to be acknowledged and celebrated.”
