Nancy Holt's Holes of Light drawing

Holt artworks on view in "Shadow and Light" at New Mexico Museum of Art Vladem Contemporary

The New Mexico Museum of Art Vladem Contemporary in Santa Fe, New Mexico launches this month. Its inaugural exhibition Shadow and Light features three works by Nancy Holt that explore address the materiality of light and shadow: a drawing relating to Holes of Light (1973) acquired by the museum for its collection last year, Mirrors of Light II (1974), and Light and Shadow Photo Drawings (1978). Santa Fe is the home base of the Foundation, and Holt lived just outside the city, in Galisteo, from 1995 until her passing in 2014.

Holes of Light and Mirrors of Light II are room-sized installations Nancy Holt made in the first half of the 1970s that explore the qualities of reflected light. Whether emanating from the stars or plugged into electricity grids, the perceptual qualities of light fascinated Holt. Mirrors of Light II was first presented at the Walter Kelly Gallery in Chicago, and this is the first time it has been exhibited since. 

In Light and Shadow Photo Drawings Nancy Holt created twenty-two experiments with light and shadow. Holt shined a light through various curved cutouts and photographed the light and shadow that became projected on to the opposite wall, echoing her process of making light material in Mirrors of Light. Here she distills the photographic medium to its essence: projected light. With no recognizable object of reference, the images invite us to observe the interplay of light and shadow, and grapple with the processes of our own perception.

The exhibition is on show through May 28, 2024.

Archived News

the book Nancy Holt Locating Perception

Book Launch at Sprüth Magers New York with A.K. Burns and Lisa Le Feuvre

Please join us on Monday July 17 for a conversation and book release to celebrate the launch of Nancy Holt: Locating Perception with a conversation between Lisa Le Feuvre and A.K. Burns.

Nancy Holt: Locating Perception takes a journey through Holt’s work, paying particular attention to her investigations into the structures that we humans use as we attempt to understand our place on the surface of our planet. The book includes an essay by Julian Myers-Szupinska, an interview between Holt and Laura McLean-Ferris, and extensive notes on the work.

a large puddle with cars parked beside it on the right side and a row of evergreen trees in the background

Nancy Holt / Inside Outside launches at MACBA on July 12

This summer the exhibition Nancy Holt / Inside Outside launches at MACBA, Barcelona’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Opening on July 12, 2023 this major survey is on show through January 7, 2024.

The exhibition launches on Wednesday July 12 at 8pm, preceded by a conversation at 7pm between Lisa Le Feuvre, Executive Director of Holt/Smithson Foundation and Teresa Grandas, curator at MACBA.