Vielmetter Los Angeles is happy to announce Certainly an Act, a presentation of works on paper by the late Pope.L at The Drawing Center on view from June 26th until September 27th, 2026.

Presenting a comprehensive survey of works on paper by Pope.L (1955–2023), Certainly an Act brings together more than two-hundred works, many never before publicly exhibited, ranging from the early 1980s to the artist’s final years. Drawn primarily from the artist’s estate, the exhibition also encompasses drawing-based films, writings, archival materials, and audio drawings. Together, these works argue for a practice in which drawing was neither preparatory nor peripheral, but was a central, expansive and generative aspect of Pope.L’s work.

A visionary artist, teacher, and performer, Pope.L transformed drawing into a space of humorous critique, challenging audiences to see and think differently about the systems that dominate how we interpret the world around us. Known primarily for his performance, installation, and text-based art, drawing remained a throughline in his practice: a testing ground for ideas and a site for play and contradiction. For Pope.L, drawing was a medium in which ideas about the body, language, and American identity took their most distilled and vulnerable form.

Certainly an Act illuminates the artist’s engagement with drawing as both a formal and conceptual tool, featuring key bodies of work such as Failure Drawings, Skin Sets, and a rarely exhibited installation work titled Relational Painting a.k.a If Black Is Beautiful…. Presented across the entirety of The Drawing Center’s galleries, the exhibition will be organized thematically and semi-chronologically, tracing the evolution of Pope.L’s larger practice as translated through his unique and expansive definition of drawing.

Certainly an Act: Works on Paper by Pope.L is organized by Executive Director Laura Hoptman, Assistant Curator Rebecca DiGiovanna, Assistant Curator of Research Isabella Kapur, with Curatorial Consultant Hamza Walker, Director of The Brick, Los Angeles.