Robert Longo The Weight of Hope at PACE GALLERY CHELSEA

James Kalm arrived in New York City at the very end of the 1970s. His only desire was to study art and become part of the vibrant community of cultural producers. Unbeknownst to him, he’d turned up in the midst of a major artistic paradigm shift. After fifteen years the dead-end course of Minimalism and Conceptualism had been reached. Groups of young artists were flailing around looking for a fresh aesthetic tribe to join. The time was right for the torch to be passed. Several tendencies had recently appeared in resistance to the academic Minimal/Conceptual hegemony. First was “Bad Painting” a reassessment of quirky figurative painting. Second was “Pattern/Decorative” and extravagant investigation of ornament with foundational feminist groundings in craft. Third was “The Pictures Generation” an amalgam of photo realism, fashionably cool minimal design, with a dose of French Post structural theory, thrown in to add spice. Douglas Crimp’s 1977 exhibition “Pictures” at Artists Space was the grain around which the pearlescence of the Pictures Generation would form. The original exhibitors were: Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, and Philip Smith. Many of these artists would go on to have long affiliations with Metro Pictures which recently closed after a forty plus year run. “The Weight of Hope” is a massive gallery filling exhibition and signals Longo’s new representation by Pace. The source pictures for these works have been gleaned by the artist from the onslaught of media, newspapers, television and the internet, much of it depicting conflicted, fragile and tragic scenes of American democracy. This show features a video program, suites of Longo’s enormous charcoal drawings, prints, multiples and sculpture. A musical introduction is provided by Joshua Mitchell. This program was recorded Sept. 12, 2025. @jameskalmreport @jameskalmroughcut #jameskalmreport #jameskalmroughcut #lorenmunk