Image: Drawing Center, London
The Drawing Center will open 'Certainly an Act: Works on Paper by Pope.L' on June 26, 2026, bringing together more than 200 works by the artist across the institution’s galleries in New York. The exhibition runs through September 27, 2026, and is drawn primarily from Pope.L’s estate, with many of the works described as never before publicly exhibited.
According to the center, the show spans material from the early 1980s through the artist’s final years and includes not only works on paper but also drawing-based films, writings, archival materials, and audio drawings. The exhibition is organized thematically and chronologically, aiming to trace the development of Pope.L’s broader practice through what the institution calls his expansive definition of drawing.
The presentation positions drawing as a central part of Pope.L’s work rather than a supporting category. The museum text says that for Pope.L, drawing was “not simply making a mark on paper; it was an event unfolding in time,” extending from line and language to bodily action and the use of everyday materials. The exhibition argues for drawing as a generative force in a practice that also encompassed performance, writing, installation, painting, collage, and objects.
Pope.L, born William Pope in Newark, New Jersey, in 1955 and working until his death in 2023, is presented by the center as a groundbreaking interdisciplinary artist. The exhibition page notes that he trained as a playwright before earning an MFA at Rutgers University, and that his practice was shaped by an interest in the porous boundary between art and life. The text also situates his work in relation to Fluxus and Conceptual art, while emphasizing his repeated revisiting and reworking of projects across mediums and time.
The show also foregrounds the artist’s sustained engagement with race, language, class, and the instability of meaning. The center’s description points to humor and absurdity as key tools in works where caricature, text fragments, brand names, and perishable materials intersect. In that framing, 'Certainly an Act' presents drawing as a method for asking how meaning can be made and undone at the same time.
The exhibition is organized by Assistant Curator Rebecca DiGiovanna, Executive Director Laura Hoptman, and Assistant Curator of Research Isabella Kapur, with curatorial consultant Hamza Walker, director of The Brick in Los Angeles. A fully illustrated catalog accompanies the show and is edited by DiGiovanna and Kapur. The catalog includes contributions from Aria Dean and Simone White, as well as a conversation between Walker and Hoptman.
The Drawing Center has also scheduled public programs around the exhibition. A zine workshop with 002Press is set for July 18, followed by a three-day creative writing and drawing workshop led by Najee Omar from August 10 to 12. A bilingual drawing workshop, 'DibujoAhora! DrawNow!', is scheduled for August 8, and a conversation and book swap with Asmaa Walton, OlaRonke Akinmowo, and Myron M. Beasley is set for August 22.
