William Pope.L

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William Pope.L [born 1955] is a prominent, multi-disciplinary artist known for his ironic and martial conceptual art dealing with consumerism, social class and racism. Pope. L regularly draws upon his African-American heritage to tackle variations upon what he calls "social conundrum."^[1]

Pope.L tackles "social conundra" with a humorous and visceral angle. The "social conundra" that he aims to highlight in his work includes issues revolving round race, homelessness, social class and oppression.

He is trenchantly dubbed "The Friendliest Black Artist in America", which is also the title of a book on his works published in 2002 by MIT Press. Recent activity by Pope.L includes The Black Factory, a wayfaring project initiated in 2004 and displayed at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MOCA) as part of The Interventionists show. In another performance piece called The Great White Way, Pope. L crawled his way from the Battery north through Manhattan dressed in a Superman outfit. A text by Holland Cotter in the New York Times dated March 30, 2008, stated that Mr. Pope continues to make performance works based on racial issues despite the wane in fashion for identity politics.

Throughout Pope.L's career he has received continual support from foundations including four fellowships to Yaddo. However, in 2001, the acting-chairman of the NEA, Robert Martin, rescinded support for "eRacism," despite the fact that a panel had recommended the show receive a $20,000 grant. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts forwarded the offer of a grant instead.

William Pope.L was recently featured alongside other performing artists: Sean Penn, Willem Dafoe, Brad Pitt, Steve Buscemi, and Juliette Binoche in Robert Wilson's LAB HD portraits.

Pope.L currently works as a lecturer of Theater and Rhetoric at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

[edit] References

^ http://www.artistsspace.org/exhibitions/2004/william_popel/wpopel.html

[edit] Further reading

William Pope.L: The Friendliest Black Artist in America, Mark H. C. Bessire, The MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 2002 (ISBN 0-262-02533-7).
The Whole Entire World: Interview with William Pope.L by Amy Horschak in Dak'Art 2006, La Biennale de Dakar: Dakar, 2006, p. 382-383.