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 April 28, 2024.

Archived News

an image of a pipeline inside a gallery

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

an image of a sign saying 'sun air'

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.

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," 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.