Holt and Smithson on view at Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in Mumbai, India

Works by both Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson will be on view in the upcoming exhibition Light into Space, organized by Dia Art Foundation at Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in Mumbai, India. Opening on February 13, Light into Space features Nancy Holt's room-sized sculpture Mirrors of Light I (1974) and Robert Smithson's sculpture Four-Sided Vortex (1967) and the film Spiral Jetty (1970). These works by Holt and Smithson are accompanied in the group exhibition by artists John Chamberlain, Mary Corse, Walter De Maria, Dan Flavin, Robert Irwin, and François Morellet in Light into Space, on view through May 11, 2025.

From Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre:
"It's a constant, continuous, spectacular world we live in, and every day you see things that just knock you out, if you pay attention.” American artist Robert Irwin had once famously said. Paying closer attention to find the spectacular in the invisible was at the heart of the Light & Space art movement—a revolutionary visual art ethos of the 1960s and 70s of which Irwin was a pioneering member. Six decades later, you can step into a luminous dreamscape that evokes ephemeral visions with seminal artworks of Irwin and his colleagues—John Chamberlain, Mary Corse, Walter De Maria, Dan Flavin, Nancy Holt, Robert Smithson, and François Morellet. 

Originating in Southern California in the early 1960s, the Light and Space movement uses light as both a concept and a material to create immersive experiences that interact with the audience, challenging fixed perceptions of reality. Light into Space– NMACC’s sixth landmark exhibit at the Art House—shines a light on the works of some of the most popular counter-culture artists from this period, brought together in India for the very first time by the New York-based Dia Art Foundation. 

Spread across four floors, the visually stunning artworks draw life from immersive environments and industrial material like fluorescent lights, polished metal & plastic, and large-scale installations involving mirrors, lights & reflective paint to create a sensorial exploration that will alter the way you experience art. Moving beyond the traditional canvas and established forms like paintings and sculptures, this exhibit renders your interactions with each piece participatory, unique, and irreplicable!

Offering more than just visual art, Light into Space brings together visionary works that push the boundaries of art. Founded with the goal of supporting ambitious projects that might otherwise remain unrealized due to their scale or complexity, Dia Art Foundation has curated this exhibition to explore the limitless possibilities of light and space. Come, immerse yourself in a world of enchanting, transformative experiences that will challenge the way your perceive the world around you! 

Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson sitting at a diner on a trip to a slate quarry in New Jersey, 1968
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Archived News

Smithson's Spiral Jetty film on view at Neue Nationalgalerie

We are happy to share that Robert Smithson's film Spiral Jetty (1970) is currently on view at Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Germany. This marks the first time that the recently completed high-resolution scan of Spiral Jetty has been shown in Europe. The film was digitized from the original 16mm film in 2024 by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, following the gift of this material by Holt/Smithson Foundation. 

Nancy Holt: Power Systems opens at the Wex

We are delighted to announce that Nancy Holt: Power Systems is now on view at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus Ohio. The solo exhibition features the most extensive inquiry to date into Nancy Holt's studies of systems, focusing on her interactive site-responsive sculptural installations that expose the basic technological systems found in the built environment.