Dia Acquires "Sun Tunnels" by Nancy Holt

Holt/Smithson Foundation is pleased to announce Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels (1973-76) has joined Dia Art Foundation’s collection of art. In addition, Holt’s 1973 room-sized installation Holes of Light will join the collection. Both acquisitions have been facilitated by Holt/Smithson Foundation.

Sun Tunnels is a pioneering work of Land art located in the Great Basin Desert in north-western Utah. This new acquisition demonstrates Dia’s unwavering commitment to site-specific projects, which began more than forty years ago with Walter De Maria’s The Lightning Field (1977) and now includes projects around the world. This is the first permanent work of Land art to join Dia’s collection since 1999, when Nancy Holt facilitated the donation of Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970) to Dia.

In celebration, Dia will present an exhibition of work by Holt at Dia:Chelsea in New York, opening September 15, 2018. Holt’s work since the early 1970s was concerned with the complexities of perception-focus, light, and space. This exhibition will feature Holes of Light and Mirrors of Light (1974), which both explore the physical properties of light projected onto cylindrical forms. Holt’s work with artificial light led her to explore natural light in the landscape and, ultimately, create Sun Tunnels. The exhibition will mark the first recreation of Mirrors of Light since its original installations in 1974.

Nancy Holt, Sun Tunnels (1973-76)
Great Basin Desert, Utah
Concrete, steel, earth
Overall dimensions: 9 ft. 2-1/2 in. x 86 ft. x 53 ft. (2.8 x 26.2 x 16.2 m); length on the diagonal: 86 ft. (26.2 m)
Photograph: Nancy Holt

Collection Dia Art Foundation with support from Holt/Smithson Foundation
© Holt/Smithson Foundation and Dia Art Foundation, licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York

Archived News

Films by Holt and Smithson on view at The Museum of Modern Art

Three films by Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson are currently on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in collection gallery 411 of the David Geffen Wing. This presentation focuses on Spiral Jetty (1970), Swamp (1971), and Sun Tunnels (1978). Newly restored scans of the first two works are presented as part of a collaboration between Holt/Smithson Foundation and MoMA to preserve their moving-image work.

Chapter Nine of Tuesday Texts

Throughout February 2026, we are publishing the ninth chapter of our Tuesday Text Series as part of our ongoing Scholarly Text Program, which invites thinkers to focus on a single artwork by Holt and/or Smithson. Developed as a tool for researchers at all stages, the Scholarly Text Program aims to publish two essays on each work, presenting differing opinions and approaches and drawing connections to topics that range from geology and ecology to poetry, architecture, public art, sculpture, drawing, film, philosophy, site, and

Nancy Holt: Light and Shadow Poetics at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles

What does it mean to notice how we see? "Nancy Holt: Light and Shadow Poetics" at the MAK Center at the Schindler House in Los Angeles offers an encounter where art and architecture shape perception together. This exhibition to brings Holt’s work into a responsive dialogue with the Schindler House, inviting visitors to experience art and architecture as partners in seeing.

Nancy Holt concrete poem on show in Paris at Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles

Nancy Holt started making art in 1966, and her first works took the form of concrete poems: artworks testing the structure, content, and form of language. A key concrete poem, "The World Though a Circle," from 1972 is currently on show in the exhibition Deep Fields at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris until March 23, 2026.

Nancy Holt's Starfire acquired by Powder Art Foundation

We are very pleased to share Nancy Holt’s 1986 sculpture "Starfire" has found a permanent home in the collection of Powder Art Foundation in Eden, Utah. Powder Art Foundation is an outdoor art museum that works closely with Dia Art Foundation. "Starfire" comprises eight pits arranged to mirror the Big Dipper constellation and the North Star. The flames create a terrestrial map of the night sky, bringing the energy of distant stars down to earth.

Holt artworks in "All Light: Light and Space yesterday and today" at Kunsthalle Bielefeld

Light was a constant source of fascination for Nancy Holt throughout her four decades of artmaking. Whether drawn from the stars or powered by electricity, she approached light as a phenomenon, an idea, and a material in itself. Three of her pivotal works investigating the perceptual qualities of light are featured in the exhibition "All Light: Light and Space yesterday and today" at Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany.