Born in Brooklyn (US) in 1953, Longo graduated from SUNY Buffalo State University in 1975. He came into the spotlight with the series “Men in the Cities”, which he began producing in 1981. During the New Painting era during the 1980s, he established a position with a unique approach to charcoal drawings. On the other side, he has left remarkable achievements as a film director and videographer, with the depth of his figurative visual expression having an important influence on his drawing works. Longo has been impacted by various visual experiences through films, the physical expression and visual imagery he depicted in his work are heavily influenced by the film production. In the “Men in the Cities” series, the violent gestures of the characters as if they are burst from some kind of shock are a modification of the dramatic collapse of the shot characters from the scenes of films like “The Wild Bunch” (1969) and “The American Soldier” (1970). By actually throwing objects at models, Longo captures instant reactions and traces them to create his drawings. While Longo's works are incredibly realistic, with many points worthy of comparison to Hyperrealism, his pioneer role in translating cinematic expressions into painting expressions likely surpasses such evaluations. As one of the leading representatives of American contemporary art since the 1980s, his works are in the collections of museums and institutes worldwide, with many invitations from internationally important major exhibitions, including Documenta (1982, 1987), the Venice Biennale (1997), the Whitney Biennial (1983, 2004) and the Carnegie International (1985). He has also held large-scale solo museum exhibitions around the world regularly.