Desert in the foreground with blue mountains in the background. In the mid-ground is a dilapidated wood structure and a figure.

Friday Film Program Weekend Screening

For the last nine weeks the first edition of Holt/Smithson Foundation’s Friday Film Program has presented a selected moving image work by Nancy Holt and/or Robert Smithson on Vimeo and IGTV for twenty-four hours.

This weekend all nine films in the Friday Film Program are accessible on Vimeo, along with introductions by artists Charlotte Prodger, Dorothy Cross, Lee Ranaldo, and Katrina Palmer, as well as by members of the Foundation team.

The screening starts at 12 noon Mountain Time (the time zone of our home base in New Mexico) Friday June 5, showing through Monday June 8 at 12 noon MDT. If you are planning a marathon one-sitting viewing, make sure you have around four and a half hours before 12 noon MT on Monday.

The moving image works can be watched over the weekend in any order, at any time, and as many times as you like.

Both Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson frequently chose film and video as their medium. Above you can see Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson filming at the site of Broken Circle/Spiral Hill using Holt's 16 mm Bolex camera, which she used to create of a number of the films in the Friday Film Program.

The full Program comprises the following works:

April 3, 2020: Nancy Holt, Utah Sequences (1970)

April 10, 2020: Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty (1970)

April 17, 2020: Nancy Holt, Sun Tunnels (1978)

April 24, 2020: Nancy Holt, Revolve (1977)

May 1, 2020: Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson, Swamp (1971)

May 8, 2020: Nancy Holt, Pine Barrens (1975)

May 15, 2020: Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson, East Coast/West Coast (1969)

May 22, 2020: Nancy Holt, The Making of Amarillo Ramp (1973-2013)

May 29, 2020: Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson, Mono Lake (1968-2004)

Our next digital program will be the first edition of our Tuesday Texts Program. Through June and July we will publish new writing each week on single works by Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson in our Scholarly Text series. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter for updates.

Archived News

a short typewritten text within a circle, with Nancy Holt's signature in the bottom right corner

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 2," from 1972 is currently on show in the exhibition Deep Fields at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris until March 23, 2026.

a constellation of the big dipper made of fire pits

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.

forthcoming

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.

Robert Smithson looking at the camera from the back of a stationwagon loaded with rocks

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.

four steel pipes extending up from the floor with four viewing pipes pointed at four black painted circles on the wall

Holt's "Locators with Loci" on view in "Minimal" at the Bourse de Commerce

Nancy Holt's 1972 sculpture "Locators with Loci" is on view in the exhibition "Minimal" at the Bourse de Commerce, Paris until January 18, 2026. Curated by Jessica Morgan, Director of Dia Art Foundation, the exhibition traces the scope Minimal Arr through over a hundred works by some forty international artists.

a woman walking up a sand dune hill with her back to the camera

Joan Jonas: An Island Departure at the Farnsworth Art Museum

"Joan Jonas: An Island Departure, with Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson"  is currently on show at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine through to March 1, 2026. This special collaboration is part of our on-ongoing series of projects with artists working today.