A close up of a golden sunrise through Holt's Sun Tunnels.

Film screening at Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles

On the occasion of the exhibition Nancy Holt: Light and Shadow Poetics at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House, we are pleased to present a special screening event.

Join us on Thursday, April 9 at 6:00 PM at Sprüth Magers for a presentation of Nancy Holt’s influential 1978 film Sun Tunnels, alongside the 1971 film Swamp, co-authored with Robert Smithson. Following the screening, Lisa Le Feuvre, our Executive Director, will offer reflections on Holt’s enduring relevance as a filmmaker.

This event marks the Los Angeles premiere of a newly restored digital scan of Swamp, produced through a collaboration between the Holt/Smithson Foundation and The Museum of Modern Art to preserve Holt and Smithson’s moving-image work. Swamp probes the mechanics of perception through sight, foregrounding the limits of technology as a substitute for human vision. Sun Tunnels documents the making of Holt’s landmark earthwork of the same name in Utah’s Great Basin Desert, revealing her deep trust in, and respect for, the skilled labor that brought the work into being.

Presented in partnership with the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Holt/Smithson Foundation, and Sprüth Magers, this screening is part of a series of public programs accompanying the exhibition Nancy Holt: Light and Shadow Poetics at the MAK Center.

Nancy Holt, Sun Tunnels [still] (1978)
16 mm film
Color, sound
Duration: 26 minutes, 31 seconds

© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York. Distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York

Archived News

spiral jetty film still

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.

four wooden pillars sticking out of the earth with mountains in the background

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

signage for an exhibition

"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.