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

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.

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.