person sitting on the ground between two piles of books

Friday Film Program: Season 2

This November Holt/Smithson Foundation invites you to join us for our second season of Friday Films.

This season of Friday Films presents films made by Holt and Smithson that relate to two current solo exhibitions of Robert Smithson’s work in Europe: Hypothetical Islands at Marian Goodman Gallery London and Primordial Beginnings at Galerie Marian Goodman Paris. Each weekend during November and early December we will be sharing on of the five films on view in Hypothetical Islands.

These two exhibitions mark a new partnership between Holt/Smithson Foundation and Marian Goodman Gallery, who exclusively represents Robert Smithson. Hypothetical Islands will pay attention to Smithson’s enduring interest in islands. It will present over fifty works spanning 1961 to 1973, many of which will be exhibited for the first time in many decades. In Paris, Primordial Beginnings investigates Smithson’s exploration of, to use his own words, “origins and primordial beginnings, […] the archetypal nature of things.” Both Hypothetical Islands and Primordial Beginnings show Smithson’s prescience and continued importance for our present.

Each film in the program will be made available from 12 p.m. Mountain Time (the time zone of our home base in New Mexico) on Friday through to 12 p.m. Mountain Time on Monday. A video introduction from individual artists and scholars will be shared Thursday before the screening.

The films will be available on Vimeo and on InstagramTV. Please stay tuned to our Holt/Smithson Foundation Instagram and Twitter pages for updates on the Friday Film Program and links to the films.

Friday Film Program Season 2 Schedule:

November 13, 2020:    
Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty (1970)

November 20, 2020:    
Nancy Holt, Mangrove Ring (1971)

December 4, 2020:    
Nancy Holt, The Making of Amarillo Ramp (1973/2013)

December 11, 2020:    
Nancy Holt, Bob with Books (1971)

December 18, 2020:    
Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson, Mono Lake (1968/2004)

Still from Nancy Holt, Bob with Books (1971)
Color, silent
16 mm film

©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.