Cheryl Pope
A Silent I
September 9, 2011 – January 28, 2012

Since the opening of her “on the wall” project in September, Cheryl Pope has met with local teenagers involved in The MCA Creative Agency, a newly launched program at the Museum of Contemporary Art where teens collectively explore what art is. Together they have discussed the parameters of the A Silent I series and their collaboration will result in Part 3 of this very public installation. These personal statements made by teenagers, the difference between truths and lies, and the implications of exhibiting these banners have been the focus of their discussion and Pope will work with the teens to curate multiple grouping of banners selected from the entire 20-part series to run until the end of the year.

More on A Silent I: As an artist-in-residence at Chicago Public School Lindblom Math and Science Academy in 2010, Pope asked the high school students to anonymously submit one truth and one lie about themselves, without designating which was which, as part of a collaborative art project.  Of the 125 submitted statements, Pope selected 20 to reproduce in the style of athletic championship banners and installed them in the Lindblom gymnasium for their initial presentation.   Addressing complex issues of identity, self-worth, and inter-personal relationships, this celebratory series speaks to all ages, so we invited Pope to make a more public installation “on the wall.”  Grouping the unlabeled truths and lies in various combinations, banners installed for Part 1 dealt with issues of internal identity while banners installed for Part 2 referenced physical identities.  Part 3 is curated in collaboration with The MCA Creative Agency.

Cheryl Pope (American, b. 1980, lives Chicago) received a Masters in Design in 2010 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which was supported by a Full Tuition Merit Scholarship, and Bachelors in Fine Arts from the same in 2003. Her work has been in exhibitions at venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland, the Evanston Art Center, Swimming Pool Projects, and the School of the Art Instituteof Chicago, to name a few. In 2009, she was selected for Art Chicago’s exhibition New Insight, a selection of the top graduate students from the best art schools in the country, and was named one of the “Rising Stars” in the Fall issue of CS Interiors. Pope and her work have also been discussed in The New York Times and The Cleveland Scene. She has been the studio manager for artist Nick Cave since 2003 and credits him and his work as a great influence on her practice. Pope is part-time faculty at the School of Art Institute Fashion Department in Chicago. This September Pope had a solo exhibition at Dorsch Gallery in Miami, which received rave reviews in publications like Artslant, New Times Miami and more.