At The Drawing Center, a posthumous exhibition of Pope.L turns drawing into a powerful way of questioning how identity, race, and imagination shape the idea of the American Dream. The show, Certainly an Act: Works on Paper by Pope.L, brings together works that push viewers to look beyond familiar symbols and into deeper social meaning.
One of the central pieces, Portrait a.k.a. The American Dream Is to Be Able to Think (1989-90), presents a headless figure built from acrylic, oil pastel, marker, pencil, and tape. Its stripped-down form creates a striking visual absence, inviting reflection on who is seen, who is remembered, and who is left outside dominant narratives.
The exhibition also places books and archives at the center of the experience. A collaboration with the Detroit-based Black Art Library adds another layer of context, with titles by writers and artists such as Zora Neale Hurston and Faith Ringgold. Together, these materials frame drawing not only as an art form, but as a method of thinking, reading, and reimagining cultural history.
By pairing visual art with literary and archival references, the exhibition highlights Pope.L's enduring influence on contemporary art discourse. It suggests that the future of artistic practice may lie in works that challenge inherited ideas and open space for new ways of seeing.
