On Nancy Holt: Rita McBride and Aurora Tang in Conversation

To mark the closing of Nancy Holt: Locating Perception, Sprüth Magers is hosting a conversation between Rita McBride and Aurora Tang at the Los Angeles gallery. Holt's work remains crucial both to an understanding of land-based and conceptual practices of the late 1960s onward, as well as to contemporary approaches to the natural and built environments. McBride and Tang, who have long engaged with related questions in their projects and exhibitions, will discuss Holt's work and their varied practices. 

On Nancy Holt: Rita McBride and Aurora Tang in Conversation 
Saturday, January 14, 2023
3PM
Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles

Rita McBride has explored architectural and sculptural form in works ranging from small scale objects to large public commissions since the late 1980s. This year, McBride's work will be featured in solo presentations at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and Dia Beacon, New York, and she is a 2021–22 and 2022–23 recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation's Lee Krasner Award.

Aurora Tang is a curator and researcher based in Los Angeles. She has worked with The Center for Land Use Interpretation since 2009 and currently serves as its program director. Tang is a recipient of an Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Curatorial Research Fellowship, and has recently organized exhibitions at MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, and MOCA Tucson.

Nancy Holt, Locator with Spotlight and Sunlight (1972) 
Installation view: Nancy Holt: Locating Perception, Sprüth Magers, Los Angeles, 2022
Steel pipe, spotlight, vinyl and window
Overall dimensions variable (site responsive)
Photograph: Robert Wedemeyer
Courtesy Holt/Smithson Foundation and Sprüth Magers
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Archived News

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Robert Smithson in Europe at Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop, Germany

"Robert Smithson in Europe" is currently on show at the Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop,  Germany, until February 22, 2026. The exhibition brings together Robert Smithson’s artistic production in the Netherlands, Italy, Great Britain, and Germany, with a special focus on North Rhine-Westphalia, the region local to the city of Bottrop.