Gallery: Robert Longo – The Weight of Hope

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Written by Nina Evans for THE ARTISTS FORUM MAGAZINE
Edited by Amos White V for THE ARTISTS FORUM, INC
Photos courtesy of Pace Gallery

ROBERT LONGO: THE WEIGHT OF HOPE

NEW YORK, NY (October 19, 2025) A new exhibition, The Weight of Hope, showcasing the politically charged work of artist Robert Longo, took over Pace Gallery’s entire 540 West 25th Street space on September 11, 2025. The collection boasts 26 drawings, three films, three sculptures, and 33 studies. Longo bases his large-scale, hyperrealistic charcoal drawings on media images, immortalizing moments of unrest and uncertainty. In a recent interview for his Louisiana Museum of Modern Art exhibition, Longo stated, “As artists, we’re reporters. Our job is to report what it’s like to be alive now. We’re one of the few professions left in the world that has the opportunity to try to tell the truth. I feel a moral imperative to preserve the images of our shared dystopic present with the hope that something will one day change.”

Upon entering the gallery, I was struck by Untitled (Ascending Flag) adorning the entrance to the exhibit. In it, we see the American flag at the bottom of an abyss, its ripples cascading like a churning ocean or sprawling mountain range. I felt that this piece was in direct conversation with its neighbor, Untitled (Statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee Covered; Charlottesville, Virginia; August 2017). The statue, swallowed in a black tarp, is foreboding. Lee is completely covered, unrecognizable and shrouded in darkness, and still his legacy looms large. These two pieces, the flag and the covered statue, use textile work in a very interesting way. The flag and the tarp both fold over on themselves, draping across the composition, their shape created by tension and gravity. If we are to understand the American flag as a symbol of national identity but also as a textile, we can imagine it as the tarp resting over Robert E. Lee’s head, like a nation rests on its own violent history.

Longo evokes the flag again in Untitled (Protest for George Floyd; Minneapolis, Minnesota; May 28, 2020), a definitive highlight of the exhibition. A fire ablaze in the background shines through the translucency of the flag held up by a protester passing by. The image is staggering. Simply from a craft perspective, the expert charcoal technique is enough to keep you standing in front of the piece, examining every inch. The flag feels tangible, like it is quite literally in front of the background instead of part of the same plane. And from a conceptual perspective, I love the way this piece continues the dialogue about textiles, the American flag and thus the American ideal, this time, instead of an opaque black tarp that conceals something, a sheer fabric that can’t help but reveal what’s underneath. It speaks to the fierce political action sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement in response to the police brutality against Black Americans at the turn of the decade.

Longo’s work with charcoal is breathtaking to see in person on such a large scale. In pieces like Untitled (Ferguson Police, August 13, 2014), he creates an atmospheric haze with blending and blur, artfully cutting through the smoke with hard silhouettes and highlights of the militarized police force. Pieces like Untitled (Bag of Recyclables) really demonstrate Longo’s attention to detail and skill. He does not mythologize anything from reality. He takes time to observe, understand, and show what is happening in the world around him. In a digital landscape, where media cycles publish and discard harrowing images seemingly instantaneously, always moving onto the next and latest tragedy or breaking news, Longo’s work with charcoal demands that he sits with the image. As the onlooker, we sit with it, too, much longer than we would as part of an endless scroll. 

Upstairs, you can see a number of studies and assorted drawings Longo has made, including small-scale versions of some finished pieces. One piece that particularly caught my eye was Untitled (After Goya: The Third of May 1808, 1814), recognizing the Spanish painter’s style as a departure from Longo’s signature realism. Francisco de Goya’s original painting depicts French troops executing rebel forces during Napoleon’s occupation of Spain. Longo explains that the painting felt very relevant to his mission and geopolitics now: “I’ve been struggling to find a way to talk about the current state of the world in a way that effectively expresses my absolute dread and horror,” he says. “Making this drawing based on a painting by an artist who attempted to do the same allowed me to address the atrocities of the current moment in a way that felt more mindful than a direct and graphic depiction of the war in Gaza.”

Lastly, I will highlight The Weight of Hope (War, Religion, Nature), the titular triptych of this exhibit. In the leftmost panel, a soldier crouches behind a weapon, war-torn Ukraine haunted by a smoke scarred sky. In the rightmost panel, we see a California landscape charred by wildfire and firefighters attempting to fight the flames. In the center, a dense group of people make the Hajj to Mecca, assembling together in a holy place under the beating sun. What these drawings say all together, in my interpretation, is that war, disaster, and belief can never negate one another. Nothing exists in a vacuum. There will be war, and there will be people who want to show up and believe in something. There will be destruction, and there will be hope. 

Robert Longo’s The Weight of Hope will be up at Pace Gallery through October 25th, and I recommend seeing it for yourself. Shut down the media stream on your computer or phone and meditate on this experience in person— take in everything the drawings have to say. 

For more about Robert Longo, visit: pacegallery.com/artists/robert-longo/ and robertlongo.com
For more about Robert Longo’s The Weight of Hope, visit: pacegallery.com/exhibitions/robert-longo
For more information about Pace Gallery – New York City, visit: pacegallery.com