Currently on show through to January 10, 2026 at Galerie Elisabeth & Klaus Thoman in Innsbruck, Austria are three photographic series by Nancy Holt: Miami Puddles (1969), California Sun Signs (1972), and Alaskan Pines (1986).

Nancy Holt, Michael Kienzer pairs Holt with the Austrian artist Michael Kienzer, an artist who shares Holt’s interest in space, perception, and the relationship to nature in their work. Here their works enter into a dialogical exchange from their respective independent geographical, temporal, and material perspectives, questioning ecological and sculptural systems as well as the hierarchies of meaning in our viewing habits. Seemingly incompatible, the works on display nevertheless clearly point to commonalities in their investigative gaze.

In Miami Puddles, Holt uses a self-imposed pattern of observation. The photographed puddles formed by rainwater become a lens for mapping a city, but also for scanning and revealing terrain, such as the bulges and cracks in the asphalt. In Alaskan Pines (1986), too, the repetitive element of the landscape conveys movement in space, but also allows the natural idyll (white sky bordered by a pine horizon) to tip into the abstract through serial repetition. In California Sun Signs (1972), the photo series reveals our inherent patterns of perception and their conclusions. Once again navigating urban areas using infrastructure and advertising (signs), she also succeeds in moving from the depicted object to the cultural and economic appropriation of the sun itself.

With this investigative gaze on marginal phenomena, incidental motifs, or inconspicuous details, Nancy Holt succeeds in creating a détournement in her photographs as a productive diversion from the depicted object. A similar approach can be seen in Michael Kienzer's work, through the use of materials, the unusual juxtaposition of objects, and the simple establishment of relationships, a re-location of already familiar objects and thus a distraction from the things themselves.

Developed in partnership with the Sustainable Mountain Arts Association Tyrol (SMAAT), the exhibition also expands the discourse to include questions of ecological responsibility. As part of the Premierentage Innsbruck 2025 the exhibition will feature a lecture by Robert Fleck on art and ecology on Saturday, November 8, at 1 p.m.