person kneeling beside a sculptural wall, and using tools to mark the alignment of the shadow of the sculpture

40th Anniversary Celebration of Nancy Holt's "Time Span"

We are delighted to partner with The Contemporary Austin and Austin Film Society this April to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Nancy Holt's sculpture Time Span (1981) at Laguna Gloria, in Austin, Texas. 

In Time Span Holt highlights the overlapping cycles of personal and astronomical time. Each year on April 5, the artist’s birthday, a shadow is cast by the afternoon sun through the sculpture’s steel wheel to frame a plaque on the ground inscribed with the artwork’s date of completion, also April 5. Despite the solidity of its materials, Time Span reflects change, offering variable sight lines of the surrounding landscape at different times of the day and year.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of this work we have collaborated with The Contemporary Austin and Austin Film Society to create the following program of film screenings and discussions:

Outdoor Screening of Holt Films at Laguna Gloria, Austin, TX
April 3, 2021 at 8:15pm CDT

This in-person, outdoor screening at The Contemporary Austin's Laguna Gloria Campus will feature the Nancy Holt films Sun Tunnels (1978) and The Making of Amarillo Ramp (1973/2014) as well as the collaborative film Swamp, made by Holt and Robert Smithson in 1969.

Purchase tickets for the screening and learn more about the health and safety guidelines for the event on The Contemporary Austin website.

Annual Viewing of Nancy Holt's Time Span Alignment at Laguna Gloria, Austin, TX
April 5, 2021 at 2pm CDT

Reserve tickets to witness the shadow alignment of Time Span through The Contemporary Austin website.

On Nancy Holt's Life and Art: A Conversation with DeeDee Halleck, Rachel Kushner, and Lisa Le Feuvre
April 5, 2021 at 6pm CDT
Virtual Discussion

On Nancy Holt’s birthdate, best-selling author, Rachel Kushner, interviews media activist DeeDee Halleck, Holt’s long-time collaborator and friend. With Holt/Smithson Foundation Executive Director Lisa Le Feuvre moderating, they will discuss Holt’s art, her life with Robert Smithson, Halleck’s memories of their time and work together, and the changing roles of women artists.

Register for this free Zoom event through The Contemporary Austin website.

Online Viewing of Holt and Smithson's East Coast/West Coast (1971) through Austin Film Society
April 3—10, 2021

In this improvised film, Holt assumes the role of an intellectual conceptual artist from New York while Smithson plays the stereotypical “non-conformist” from the West Coast. East Coast/West Coast (1971) will be available for online viewing the through the Austin Film Society website.

Nancy Holt working on the metal plaque in the ground that marks the completion of Time Span at 2pm on April 5, 1981. 

©Holt/Smithson Foundation, Licensed by VAGA at ARS, New York

Archived News

poster for Smithson's film Spiral Jetty 1970 cropped

Soft Network Benefit Auction

We are pleased to participate in the Soft Network Benefit Auction, open on Artsy from September 23 until October 7, 2026. The auction brings together works in support of Soft Network and the Artist Foundations and Estate Leaders List (AFELL), an international network for artists and stewards of artists’ estates and legacies. Holt/Smithson Foundation has donated two rare works of art by Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson to the auction to help further this goal. 

Nancy Holt's "Starfire" (1986) as installed at the Powder Art Foundation, Utah, 2025

“Starfire” at Powder Art Foundation Fall Open Day and Utah Museum of Fine Arts Land Art Week

On October 2, from 11 am to 3 pm, Powder Art Foundation will host a Fall Open House at Powder Mountain in Eden, Utah where Nancy Holt’s Starfire (1986) can be experienced. Starfire joined the collection of Powder Art Foundation last year. The sculpture comprises eight fire pits arranged in the configuration of the Big Dipper and the North Star, bringing the sky down to earth.

images of a artwork formed of language

Portuguese translation of Smithson's "Strata: A Geophotographic Fiction"

We are pleased to share our collaboration with the São Paulo–based Robert Smithson scholar and professor Antônio Ewbank and publisher Editora Ébria, presenting the first Portuguese translation of the text of Robert Smithson's Strata: A Geophotographic Fiction (1970). Strata: A Geophotographic Fiction is a four-part fold-out work created by Smithson for Aspen Magazine No. 8: The Fluxus Issue, guest edited by Dan Graham and designed by George Maciunas.

A Locator looking to a mirror

Nancy Holt in "10 Years LA!"

From May to August 2026, Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers presented 1 0 Years LA!,at their Los Angeles gallery, an exhibition celebrating the gallery's decade-long presence in the city.