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Pope.L

Since his now renowned ‘crawl’ performance in Times Square in 1978, Pope.L’s work has been widely venerated for its critique of economic and racial injustices. Across performance, street action, painting, video, installation, and sculpture, it has provided a framework to think about relations and power disparities in race, language, gender, communities, and the environment. “My focus is to politicize disenfranchisement, to make it neut, to reinvent what’s beneath us, to remind us where we all come from,” he once stated. Pope.L’s earliest performances in public spaces brought together influences from absurdist theatre, Fluxus, and conceptual art in such works as Eating the Wall Street Journal (1991) in which he chewed and spat out pages of The Journal with milk and ketchup, while sitting atop a toilet-cum-throne. His early street performances were also the beginnings of what became his decades-long crawl works, which involved crawling long, exhausting routes across city streets, often dressed in formal attire. This iconic series has continued to be performed in various iterations, sometimes by Pope.L himself and other times with large groups of performers. The body politics activated by this work are present in various forms throughout Pope.L’s oeuvre. Other notable works include his Flint Water Project (2017), in which he bought 150 gallons of tap water from the city of Flint during the public health disaster in which large numbers of the majority Black population became sick from its contaminated water. Pope.L rebottled this water and sold it as limited editions with the income donated to relief efforts in Flint and Detroit. The political backdrop of this project carried over into Pope.L’s more recent Choir (2019), a three-part work that brought together threads from his Flint water project with references to public drinking utilities used in the era of Jim Crow segregation.

William Pope.L (1955-2023) was born in Newark, NJ, and he lived and worked for most of his life in Chicago, IL. Pope.L began to work as an artist in the 1970s, studying at Pratt Institute and Montclair State College, where he gained a BA in 1978. He was a participant of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program in New York in the late 1970s and received his MFA from Rutgers University in 1981. Since the 1980s, his work has been exhibited extensively both in the USA and internationally. Pope.L’s early performances took place in public space, on the street. He then began to exhibit in venues as Anthology Film Archives in New York; the 2002 Whitney Biennial; Franklin Furnace in New York, among others. His work has been shown in exhibitions and performances at such institutions as Museum of Modern Art, New York; New Museum, New York; The Sculpture Center, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; CAM, Houston; Studio Museum Harlem, New York; Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago; Artists Space, New York; the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo; Artspace, Sydney, among many others. Pope.L’s final museum exhibition during his lifetime recently took place at the South London Gallery, which presented a large-scale survey exhibition of Pope.L’s work.

During his career Pope.L received a number of important awards and fellowships, including the Bucksbaum Award, Joyce Foundation Award, the Tiffany Foundation Award, the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship, Solomon R. Guggenheim Fellowship, Andy Warhol Foundation grant, Creative Capital Foundation grant, Franklin Furnace/Jerome Foundation grant, National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, among others. Pope.L taught extensively and was a faculty member of the University of Chicago from 2010 until 2023.

Press
Biography
Hospital, South London Gallery 2023-24
Trinket, 2008/2015
Installation view, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 2015
1/2
Meditation Square Pieces aka Times Square Crawl, 1978
performance
Eating the Wall Street, 1991
performance
chmera, 2018
red and green neon tubing, double sided, text: 152.4 x 365.8 x 30.5 cm, 60 x 144 x 12 in, height variable
Party Room, 1998
bottles of Wild Irish Rose and stuffed animals, 304.8 × 335.3 × 23.5 cm, 120 × 132 × 9 1/4 in
1/3
The Problem, 2015
performance, white stretched limo, white gorilla costume, white plantains, gnome painted white with a black-faced nose, 5 stacks of currency
Position Paper, 2018-19
acrylic, oil, charcoal, chalk, pastel, matte medium, paint rags, push pins, masking tape roll, painter’s tape, copy paper, vinyl and stickers on panel, diptych, overall: 247.7 × 244.2 × 17.8 cm, 97 1/2 × 96 1/8 × 7 in
1/2
Political Humor, 2023
neon, glass, wood, aluminium, 152 x 114 x 12 cm, 59 7/8 x 44 7/8 x 4 3/4 in
1/2
Foraging (asphyxia version), 1993-1995/2008
digital c-print, 48.6 x 47 cm, 19 1/8 x 18 1/2 in
1/3
Un, 2019-20
marquee letter light, lightbulbs, PVA, epoxy, painter's tape, post-it, permanent marker, rust and archival pigment prints on panel, 142.2 x 91.4 cm, 56 x 36 in
1/4
Litany, 2013
party alcohol, paper bag, shelf, 49.4 x 396.2 x 17.8 cm, 19 1/2 x 156 x 7 1/8 in
1/4
Black LIterature, 2019
acrylic, oil, graphite and painter's tape, on two panels with C-clamps and I-beam clamp hardware, 40.6 x 61 cm, 16 x 24 in
1/2
Praisies, 2020
ballpoint and ink on gridded canvas in plexiglass box in mirrored medicine cabinet with LED light, hardware and bumpers, 55.9 x 40.6 x 10.2 cm, 22 1/8 x 16 x 4 1/8 in
1/4
Claim (Whitney Version), 2017
acrylic, graphite pencil, pushpins, wood, framed document, fortified wine and baloney with black and white photocopy portrait, 457.2 x 508 x 508 cm, 180 x 200 x 200 in
1/2
Circa, 2015
oil on linen, 68.6 x 45.7 cm, 27 1/8 x 18 in
1/4
Blink, 2011
performance at Prospect.2, New Orleans
Crawling to Richard Pryor's House, 1994
acrylic, ballpoint, collage, stuffed animal and wood glue on wooden board, 55.2 x 28.6 x 12.7 cm, 21 3/4 x 11 1/4 x 5 in
1/2
Black Domestic (a.k.a.Cow Commercial), 1994
video
1/3
Tompkins Square Crawl, 1991
Eating The Wall Street Journal, 1991

Press

Guardian1 January 2024
Frieze1 January 2024
Financial Times1 January 2024
Art Review1 January 2024
Art Monthly1 December 2023
New York Times1 December 2023
Artforum1 December 2023
Interview Magazine10 August 2021
Guardian18 July 2021

Biography

Pope.L

Born in Newark, NJ, USA, 1955 Died in Chicago, IL, USA, 2023

Education

1983 - 1985
Re.Cher.Chez. Theater Intensive
Mabou Mines, New York, NY, USA
1979 - 1981
M.F.A.
Mason Gross School, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
1975 - 1978
Whitney Museum Independent Studio Program
New York, NY, USA
B.A.
Montclair State College, Montclair, NJ, USA
1973 - 1975
Pratt Institute
New York, NY, USA

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2023
HospitalSouth London Gallery, London
Small CupFarnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME, USA
Togethernessde Appel Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2022
Between a Figure and a LetterSchinkel Pavillon, Berlin, Germany
The Ritual Is For All of us
Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2021
MisconceptionsPortikus Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt, Germany
Notations, Holes, and Humour
Modern Art, London
Four Panels
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY, USA
My Kingdom for a TitleNeubauer Collegium, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
2019
Instigation, Aspiration, Perspiration
Whitney Museum of American Art, Public Art Fund, New York, NY, USA
member Pope.L, 1978–2001Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
Pope.L: ChoirWhitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA
Pope.L: ConquestPublic Art Fund, New York, NY, USA
2018
One thing after another (part two)
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY, USA
One thing after another
La Panacée, Montpellier, France, USA
2017
Brown People Are the Wrens in the Parking Lot
Logan Center Gallery, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Flint Water ProjectWhat Pipeline, Detroit, MI, USA
Proto-Skin Set
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY, USA
2015
Forest
Susanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Desert
Steve Turner, Los Angeles, CA, USA
TrinketThe Geffen Contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2014
Gold People Shit In Their Valet
Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels, Belgium
Claim
Littman Gallery, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA
2013
Cage Unrequited
Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center Performa, New York, NY, USA
Colored Waiting Room
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY, USA
Forlesen
The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, IL, USA
A Long White Cloud
Te Tuhi, Auckland, New Zealand
2012
Reenactor
Williams Center Gallery at Lafayette College, Easton, PA; traveled to Hodgepodge Building on Strawberry Alley, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN, USA
Three Projects
Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels, Belgium
2011
Child
Eastside Projects, Birmingham
2010
landscape + object + animal
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY, USA
color isn’t matter
Samson Projects, Boston, MA, USA
2009
The Black Factory
Art Projects Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami, FL, USA
Corbu PopsCarpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
William Pope.L
Kenny Schachter ROVE, London
Yard (to harrow)
Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY, USA
2008
October Projects
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY, USA
Animal Nationalism: Small Cup, Animal Nationalism: Trinket
Grand Arts, Kansas City, MO, USA
Animal Nationalism: Trinket
Exhibition Hall at Municipal Auditorium, Kansas City, MO, USA
2008
Biting Through Innocence
Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels, Belgium
2007
Drawing, Dreaming, DrowningThe Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA
Art After White People: time, trees, & celluloid…
Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA, USA
William Pope.L: snow, spraypaint, hair, sperm & baloney
Kenny Schachter ROVE, London
William Pope.L: The Black Factory and Other Good Works
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, USA
The Void Show
MC Kunst, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2006
Condoleezza Rice Day
Galleria Civica, Trento, Italy
Trophy RoomKunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Under All, Above Most
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
2005
some things you can do with blackness….
Kenny Schachter ROVE, London
Props & Propositions
Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH, USA
2004
Five Ways to Say the Same SadnessUniversity Art Museum, University at Albany, NY, USA
eRacism: electronicaContemporary Art Museum St Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
reFunkt: prints & dvds
The Project, New York, NY, USA
eRacism
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA travelling to: Artists Space, New York, NY, USA; DiverseWorks, Houston, TX, USA (2003); Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, OR, USA (2003); ICA at Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, USA (2002)
2003
Foddah
Drew University, Madison, NJ, USA
Some: Of Place and Desire
ArtHouse, Austin, TX, USA
2002
What’s Inside a Boy
The Project, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Incontinent
Wood Street Gallery, Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
2001
Hole Theory
The Project, New York, NY, USA
2000
eRacism: White Room
ThreadWaxing Space, New York, NY, USA
The Hole Inside The Space Inside Yves Klein’s Asshole
Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
Eating The Wall Street Journal And Other Current Consumptions
Mobius, Boston, MA, USA
1998
Recent Work
The Project, New York, NY
1996
Buddy Performance Objects, with Jim Calder
Touchstone Theater, Bethlehem, PA, USA
1993
William Pope.L
Horodner Romley Gallery, New York, NY, USA
1992
William Pope.L
Drew University, Madison, NJ, USA
1991
How Much is that Nigger in the Window, 30 performances, writings and installations
Franklin Furnace, New York, NY, USA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2024
About the Absurd Drama, That is Also LifeModerna Museet Malmö, Malmö, Sweden (forthcoming)
And This Time the Well is AliveGertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia
When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/HistoryDallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, USA
Wild Grass: Our Lives, 8th Yokohama Triennale
Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan
Hindsight Insight 4.0: Portraits, Landscapes, and Abstraction from the UNM Art Museum
The University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Body Maps: Works from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections in Conversation with Past Exhibiting Artists
University Art Museum, Albany, NY, USA
The sun still rises in spite of everything
Davidson College Art Galleries, Davidson, NC, USA
2023
The Irreplaceable Human
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark
Artist’s Choice: Grace Wales Bonner – Spirit MoversMuseum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
Irradiation
What Pipeline, Detroit, MI, USA
Modern Art
Paris, France
This Machine Creates OpacitiesCarpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, US
Chopped and Screwed, curated by Courtney Willis Blair
White Cube, New York, NY, USA
Perpetual Portrait
Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Works on Paper: 100 Years
Amanita Gallery, New York, NY, USA
True Love sometimes requires a little lying
Cooper Brovenick, New York, NY, USA
Someone is getting richTropen Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Artists for Artists Space
Artists Space, New York, NY, USA
2022
Ghostscript
Modern Art, London
STREET LIFE
Wilhelm Hack Museum, Stadtverwaltung Ludwigshafen, Bereich Kultur, Winterthur, Switzerland
Phraseology
The Bass, Miami, FL, USA
Us Them We: Race, Ethnicity, Identity
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA, USA
WALK!
Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt, Germany
When I State That I Am An Anarchist
PLATO Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic
Black Melancholia
Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA
2021
Transformed: Objects Reimagined by American Artists
Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ, USA
The Principle of Hope
Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, China
Oehlen, Pendleton, Pope.L, Sillman
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, Germany
The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, and PerformanceWalker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA
A Shared Body
FSU Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
Zeros and Ones
KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
“Everyone Is an Artist” Cosmopolitical Exercises with Joseph Beuys
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany
Push Over, Push Back
CCS Bard Galleries, Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-On- Hudson, New York, NY, USA
The Holding Environment
Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany
K as in knight
Helena Anrather, New York, NY, USA
2020
Stayin’ Alive
ANOTHER SPACE, New York, NY, USA
Dallas Biennial
Dallas, TX, USA
Singles
Regards Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Dial World, Part II: Stars of Everything
David Lewis Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Drawing 2020
Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Wrecked Alphabet
Broodthaers Society of America, New York, NY, USA
Citizenship: A Practice of Society
MCA Denver, Denver, CO, USA
VALUE(S) — A 21st Century Portrait of Banking and Finance
Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam, Netherlands
20 Years: Anniversary Exhibition
Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
CONSTRUÇÃO
Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil
Rituals of Regard and Recollection
Law Warschaw Gallery, Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN, USA
Climate Change
Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH, USA
2019
No thing: Pope.L, Adam Pendleton
Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Switzerland
Water After FallMuseum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Direct Message: Art, Language, and PowerMuseum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Great ForceInstitute for Contemporary Art, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA
Counter-Landscapes: Performative Actions from the 1970s - NowScottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Small Talk Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, USA
Elements of Vogue (A case of radical performance)Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico
Embodiment
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY, USA
Mask: In Present DayAargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland
Crossroads: Carnegie Museum of Art’s Collection: 1945 to NowCarnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
The Foundation of the Museum: MOCA’s CollectionThe Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
EBSPLOITATION
Martos Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Prisoner of LoveMuseum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Men of Steel, Women of Wonder: Modern American Heroes in Contemporary Times
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AK, USA travelling to: an Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX, USA; Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, MA, USA
DREAMWEAVERS
UTA Artist Space, Beverly Hill, CA, USA
From Theory to Practice: Trajectories of the Whitney
University Hall Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, USA
Political Affairs - Language Is Not Innocent
Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
2018
Other Walks, Other LinesSan Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA, USA
Rubbish and Dreams: the Genderqueer Performance Art of Stephen VarbleLeslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York, NY, USA
Becoming American
San Juan Island, WA, USA
Cheeky: Summer Butts
Marinaro Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Other Mechanisms
Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession, Vienna, Austria
Agora
The Highline, New York, NY, USA
Talisman in the Age of Difference
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
The Enemy of My Enemy
Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, and Journeys 1967-2017
Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, USA
Against the Architecture
Refectoire des Nonnes, Lyon, France
Black Pulp!, organized by William Villalongo and Mark Gibson
African American Museum, Philadelphia, PA travelling to: Edgewood Gallery, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT, USA; International Print Center New York, New York, NY, USA
Counternarratives: Performance and Actions in Public Space
Decker Gallery, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD, USA
Learning from the Land and the Water
LookOut! Gallery, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
Walking Point
Greene Naftali, New York, NY, USA
20/20: Influential Artists of the 20th Century
Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint, MI, USA
AMERICAN AFRICAN AMERICAN
Phillips Auction House, New York, NY, USA
2017
Elements of Vogue: A Case Study in Radical Performance
Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, Spain
MechanismsWattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA, USA
ICA Collections: New AcquisitionsICA Boston, Boston, MA, USA
Active Ingredients: Prompts, Props, PerformanceWilliams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA
If Not Apollo, the Breeze
KADIST, San Francisco, CA, USA
Survey Exhibition (Part I): Camerado, this is no book
Pratt Institute, New York, NY, USA
Documenta 14
Athens, Greece; Kassel, Germany
Whitney BiennialThe Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA
Wanderlust: Actions, Traces, and Journey
UB Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA travelling to: Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, USA
Person of the Crowd: The Contemporary Art of Flânerie
Roberts Gallery, Barnes Foundation, Philedelphia, PA, USA
Punching Up
Richard and Dolly Maass Gallery, Purchase College, State University of New York, Purchase, New York, USA
2016
Pope.L and Will Boone
Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY, USA
The SpotMuseum of Modern Art Warsaw, Poland
Live Uncertainly, The 32nd Bienal de São Paulo
São Paulo, Brazil
The Public Body
Artspace, Sydney, Australia
Blackness in Abstraction
Pace Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Less Than OneWalker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Body Superficial
Sgorbati Projects, New York, NY, USA
2015
Identity
Pierogi, Brooklyn, NY, USA
(Counter)Public Art, Intervention, & Performance in Lower Manhattan from 1978-1993
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York, NY, USA
TOWER
Ibid, London
Mashup
Sotheby's S|2 Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Works on Paper
Greene Naftali, New York, NY, USA
2014
Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary ArtWalker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN travelling to: Grey Art Gallery, New York, NY, USA; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston TX, USA
CON/TEXT
Lynch Tham, New York, NY, USA
Days Inn
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY, USA
Itinerant Belongings
Addams Gallery, University of Pennsylvania and Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Pierogi X X, Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition
Pierogi, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Poor Working Conditions
Martos Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Ruffneck ConstructivistsInstitute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
30 Americans - The Rubell Family CollectionFrist Center for Visual Arts, Nashville, TN travelling to: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, USA; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, USA; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, USA; The Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL, USA
Warm Side of Zero
Overduin & Co, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2013
African American Art Since 1950: Perspectives from the David C. Driskell CenterTaft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH, USA travelling to: The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC, USA; Akron Museum, Akron OH, USA; University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Blues for SmokeWhitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA travelling to: Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; The Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, CA, USA
Body LanguageStudio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, USA
Burying the Lede
Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Cliff and Better
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Chicago, IL, USA
The Eleventh Hour
DiverseWorks, Houston, TX, USA
Hello Goodbye Thank You, Again, and Again, and Again
Castillo/Corrales, Paris, France
Incognito 2013
Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA, USA
Kaboom! Comics in ArtWeserburg Museum of Modern Art, Bremen, German
Pull! Reading Room
SPACES, Cleveland, OH, USA
2012
Fax
University of Hawaii Art Gallery, Honolulu, HI travelling to: DeVos Art Museum, Marquette, MI, USA; Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA; Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA; Apex Gallery, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD, USA; Saint Paul Street Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand; Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA; South London Gallery, London; Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN, USA; Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA, USA; Plug In ICA, Winnipeg, MB, Canada; Barnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, BC, Canada; Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong, China; Dowd Gallery, State University of New York, Cortland, NY, USA; Museu de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico; New Galerie, Paris, France; The Drawing Center, New York, NY, USA; Contemporary Museum, Baltimore, MD, USA
Wall TextReva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Chicago, IL, USA
superHUMAN
Central Utah Art Center, Ephraim, Utah, USA travelling to Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ, USA
2011
After Images
Musee Juif de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium
Another Kind of Vapor
White Flag Projects, St. Louis, MO, USA
The Bearden ProjectThe Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, USA
D’un Autre Monde
Le Printemps de Septembre – à Toulouse, contemporary art festival, Toulouse, France
Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA)
Röda Sten Art Centre, Göteborg, Sweden
History of Disappearance: Live Art from New York 1975 - Present
PhotoIreland Festival, Dublin, Ireland travelling to: Laznia Center, Gdansk, Poland
Inti
On Stellar Rays, New York, NY, USA
The Painting Show
Eastside Projects, Birmingham
Prospect.2 New Orleans
New Orleans, LA, USA
2010
The 2010 DeCordova Biennial
DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, USA
At Home/Not At Home: Works from the Collection of Martin and Rebecca EisenbergHessel Museum of Art, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA
History of Disappearance: Live Art from New York 1975 – Present
Arhus Kunstbygning, Arhus, Denmark
The Last NewspaperNew Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY, USA
The Process Show
37-A Gallery, Portland, ME, USA
Resurrectine
Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY, USA
Slightly Unbalanced
Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, Richmond, VA, USA travelling to: Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV, USA; Rodman Hall Arts Center, St. Catharines, ON, Canada; Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum, Lafayette, LA USA; Museum London, London, ON, Canada
Allan Kaprow YARD (to Harrow)
Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY, USA
2009
30 Seconds Off an InchThe Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, USA
Broken Thorn Sweet Blackberry
Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York, NY, USA
Carnival Within – An Exhibition Made in America
Uferhallen, Berlin, Germany
Collected: Propositions on the Permanent CollectionThe Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, USA
Pour
Installation at the Botanical Gardens, Art Projects at Art Basil Miami Beach, Mitchell-Innes & Nash in collaboration with Galerie Catherine Bastide, Miami Beach, FL, USA
Summer Exhibition
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY, USA
Trouble at the Front
Galerie Marian Goodman, Paris, France
2008
Paul Thek: In the Contexts of Today’s Contemporary Art (PART TWO)
Sammlung Falkenburg, Hamburg, Germany
Black Is, Black Ain’t
The Renaissance Society at University of Chicago, IL, USA
Brainwave: Common Sense
Exit Art, New York, NY, USA
Criminal: Art and Criminal Justice in America
The International Center for the Arts at San Francisco State University, CA, USA
Disinhibition: Black Art and Blue HumorHyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL, USA
History of Disappearance: Live Art from New York 1975 - Present
Sydney Underground Film Festival, Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney, Australia
Informal Architectures (Pt. 2)
Winnepeg, CA, USA
Mergers and AcquisitionsContemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
Retail Value
Dorsky Gallery, Long Island City, NY, USA
2007
Port City: On Mobility and Exchange
Arnolfini, Bristol
History of Disappearance: Live Art from New York 1975 – Present
Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda, Santiago, Chile
Keeping Up With the Joneses
Schroeder Romero, New York, NY, USA
New York – States of Mind
House of World Culture, Berlin, Germany; Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY, USA
Paul Thek: In the Context of Today’s Contemporary Art
ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany
Situation Comedy: Humor in Recent Art
Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
Informal Architectures
The Banff Centre, Banff, AB, Canada
Get Lost
New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY, USA
Conceptual Paper
Arndt & Partner, Zurich, Switzerland
Plug
Sister Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Silicone ValleyPS-1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY, USA
2006
South Bronx Contemporary: Longwood 25th Anniversary
Longwood Art Gallery, Bronx,NY, USA
A Noir, E Blanc, I Rouge, U Vert, O Bleu: FarbenKunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, Magdeburg, Germany
History of Disappearance: Live Art from New York 1975 – Present
Galleria Neon, Milan, Italy travelling to: MANmuseum at the Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool
Shed Piece
Frieze, London
7e Biennale de l’Art Africaine Contemporaire
Dakar, Senegal
Civil Restitutions
Thomas Dane Gallery, London
Newark Between Us
744 Gallery/Newark Arts Council, Newark, NJ, USA
Stories
Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA
Situation Comedy
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg,Canada; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, USA
Skowhegan at 60
Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME, USA
Humor Me
H & R Block Artspace, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO, USA
Relics and Remnants
Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, New York, NY, USA
Dreaming of a More Better Future
Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH, USA
2005
Hero
Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM, USA
History of Disappearance: Live Art from New York 1975 - PresentBaltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead
Incognito
Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA, USA
Looking at Words: The Formal Use of Text in Modern and Contemporary Works on Paper
Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Moving Collection: Body-Con
Tactical Museum at Nadiff, Tokyo, Japan
Reverse Engineers
Carnegie Art Center, North Towanda, NY, USA
Landmark
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR, USA
RAPSIDA
Gallery 138, New York, NY, USA
Double ConsciousnessMuseum of Contemporary Arts Houston, Houston, TX, USA
Situation Comedy
Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI, USA
Decarie
Saidye Bronfman Center for the Arts, Montreal, Canada
Defense
Sweeney Art Gallery, University of California, Riverside, CA
2004
The Interventionists: Art in the Social Sphere
MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA Watch What We Say, Schroeder Romero, Brooklyn, NY, USA
The Big NothingInstitute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
5 x 7 Exhibition
Art House Gallery, Austin, TX, USA
Harlem Postcards: Spring 2004
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, USA
Romantic DetachmentPS-1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY, USA
Brown v. Board of Education 1954-2004
Gallery 138, New York, NY, USA
Republican Like Me
Parlour Projects, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Moving Collection: Body-Con
Fukui Prefectural Museum of Art, Fukui, Japan
Reverse Engineers
Herndon Gallery, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH, USA
Only Skin Deep
International Center for Photography, New York, NY, USA
2003
Moving Collection: Body-Con
Wanakio Festival, Naha, Okinawa, Japan diSTILLation. Fylkingen, Stockholm, Sweden
In Heat
Pierogi 2000, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Motion Studies
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York, NY, USA
White
Bill Maynes Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Ameri©an Dre@m
Ronald Feldman Fine Arts Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2002
Art & Outrage
Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY Wallow, The Project, New York, NY, USA
Whitney BiennialWhitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA
Reactions
Exit Art Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Moving Collection: Body-Con
Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Zealand
2001
Video Jam
Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Palm Beach, FL, USA
2000
Pix
Lance Fung Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Friendships in Arcadia: Writers and Artists at Yaddo in the 90s
Art in General, New York, NY; The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY, USA
Söma Söma Söma
Sculpture Center, New York, NY, USA
1999
Out of ActionsMuseum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan; Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona, Spain
The History of the Future
Franklin Furnace, New York, NY, USA
Paradise 8
Exit Art, New York, NY, USA
1998
warming
The Project, New York, NY, USA
Out of ActionsMuseum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; MAK, Vienna, Austria
Apocalypse Now
HERE Art Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Freedom, Liberation and Change: Revisiting 1968
Longwood Art Gallery, Bronx, NY, USA
A Negro Sleeps Beneath the Susquehanna
Hide and Seek Residency, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, USA
Peek
HERE Art Gallery, New York, NY, USA
1997
Available Culture
HERE Art Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Birdhouses
Robin Hutchins Gallery, Maplewood, NJ, USA
Birds of a Feather
Newark Museum, Newark, NJ, USA
Habitat for Humanity: (bird)Houses
New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, NJ, USA
Out on a Limb
Midland Gallery, Montclair, NJ, USA
1996
Exquisite Corpse
Danforth Gallery, Portland, ME, USA
1995
Art in the USA since 1950
Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY, USA
Dysfunctional Art
Tompkins Cove Art Center/Hudson Arts at Franklin Furnace, New York, NY, USA
Outside The Frame: Performance & the Object: A Survey History of Performance Satellite Choice: Young Curators Explore Diversity
Artists Space, New York, NY, USA
1994
Art in the USA since 1950
Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH, USA
Outside The Frame: Performance & the Object: A Survey History of Performance The Return of the Cadavre Exquis
Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMOA), Santa Monica, CA, USA travelling to: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA; Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis, MO, USA; American Center, Paris, France
1993
The Return of the Cadavre Exquis
Drawing Center, New York, NY Transient Décor, Roger Smith Hotel, New York, NY, USA
Various Objects
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
1991
Looking for Aunt Jenny
Art in General, New York, NY, USA
1990
Action and Artifact
Weatherspoon Gallery at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC, USA
1985
Post-Modern Icons
Franklin Furnace, New York, NY, USA
1984
Found Language
Franklin Furnace, New York, NY, USA
Radical Culture
Fashion Moda Gallery, Bronx, NY, USA
1983
Rutgers Invitational
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Selected Collections

Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL, USA
Bates College Museum of Art
Lewiston, ME, USA
Bronx Museum of the Arts
Bronx, NY, USA
Carnegie Museum of Art
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Columbus Museum of Art
Columbus, OH, USA
CCS Bard Hessel Museum
Annandale-On-Hudson, NY, USA
Institute of Contemporary Art
Boston, CT, USA
Museum Brandhorst
Munich, Germany
Museum of Contemporary Art
Chicago, IL, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Museum of Modern Art
New York, NY, USA
Portland Museum of Art
Portland, ME, USA
Spencer Museum of Art
Lawrence, KS, USA
The Studio Museum in Harlem
New York, NY, USA
Walker Art Center
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Whitney Museum of American Art
New York, NY, USA