Robert Poplack was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He developed an early interest in art growing up with his parent’s collection of paintings, as well as those at the Detroit Institute of Arts, which he visited regularly with his family. While still in high school, he attended art classes at the School of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts. He later took a gap year between his sophomore and junior years of college to work with Joaquin Olbino, a well-known master furniture maker in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico.

Following his time in Mexico, Poplack moved to California and received his BA in Art at UC Santa Cruz and subsequently got his MFA from UC Berkeley, where he studied under Joan Brown and Elmer Bischoff. Pivotal to his artistic development was his experience doing plein air painting alongside Bay Area artists Terry St. John and Lundy Siegriest at various locations throughout the region.

Poplack has exhibited his work nationally. He is a Professor Emeritus at Notre Dame de Namur University, where he taught from 1999 until 2019 and served as the Director of the university's Wiegand Gallery. Prior to his tenure there, he taught at Santa Rosa Junior College, where he returned to teach in 2020. He has also taught the Outdoor Painters Project at UC Santa Cruz. Poplack maintains an active studio practice and is married to the painter Deborah Kirklin. They live and work in Sonoma County, California.