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 SmithsonHypothetical 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

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.

Casting a Glance: Dancing with Smithson

In 1968 Robert Smithson declared: “A great artist can make art by simply casting a glance.” On show until January 20, "Casting a Glance: Dancing with Smithson" at Marian Goodman Gallery Los Angeles takes him at his word and invites eighteen artists to join Smithson on the floor as partners who resist, improvise, and extend the rhythm of his thinking.