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 that 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, stewards of both Holt’s Sun Tunnels (1973-76) and Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970).

Starfire comprises eight ground-level fire pits arranged to mirror the Big Dipper constellation and the North Star. When lit in the hours before and after sundown, the flames create a terrestrial map of the night sky, bringing the energy of distant stars down to earth. Between ignitions, the circles mark the fires to come. This alignment invites viewers to contemplate the connection between the cosmos and our immediate environment, grounding the vastness of the night sky in tangible, human-scale form.

Our research on Starfire began in 2022, working with Ballroom Marfa in Texas to present the site-responsive sculpture for the first time posthumously in the exhibition Ecstatic Land. Research is central to all we do at Holt/Smithson Foundation. Developing knowledge around Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson’s artworks is part of our daily practice. For the artists’ complex site-responsive works, we look to Holt and Smithson’s writings, drawings, archives, and exhibition histories to establish clear protocols, which are then tested through presentation in exhibitions. Once a clear set of parameters is established, artworks are ready to leave our collection. As a sunsetting foundation, we ensure that each work is carefully stewarded as it leaves our collection to support its sustained legacy.

Nancy Holt, Starfire (1986)
Installation view: Powder Mountain, Utah, 2025
Steel, earth, fire
Overall dimensions: 2 x 30 x 30 ft. (69 x 911 x 911 cm)
Fire pit diameters: two 24 in. (69 cm); five 20 in. (50.8 cm); one 17 in. (43.2 cm)
Fire pit depth: 24 in. (30.5 cm)
Photograph: Carlson / Powder Art Foundation, 2025
Collection Powder Art Foundation

Archived News

forthcoming

Holt artworks in "All Light: Light and Space yesterday and today" at Kunsthalle Bielefeld

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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.

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Holt's "Locators with Loci" on view in "Minimal" at the Bourse de Commerce

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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.

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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. 

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Susan Philipsz is the speaker for the 2025 Annual Lecture

Susan Philipsz was our speaker for the 2025 Holt/Smithson Foundation Annual Lecture. The fourth event in the ten-year series took place at the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo in the Netherlands on Saturday October 11, 2025, and a recording can be viewed on our website.