A man standing next to a compost heap holding a mirror beside his leg, which reflects a woman holding a camera

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

Robert Smithson in Europe  is on view at the Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop through February 22, 2026.

The exhibition brings together Robert Smithson’s artistic production across the Netherlands, Italy, Great Britain, and Germany, with particular attention to North Rhine–Westphalia, including the Rhineland and the Ruhr region surrounding Bottrop. Featuring major loans from international museums alongside works from the Foundation’s collection, the exhibition includes key projects from 1969 as well as materials related to Smithson’s 1971 earthwork Broken Circle/Spiral Hill. 

From the late 1960s onward, Smithson’s sculptures and installations engage questions of place, entropy, and the entanglements of human activity with nature, industry, and the environment. Europe was central to his practice, and he was especially drawn to the geological formations and industrial landscapes of North Rhine–Westphalia. 

Robert Smithson in Europe is developed in close collaboration with the Holt/Smithson Foundation and is curated by Markus Karstieß, artist and professor at Koblenz University of Applied Sciences, Dr. Eva Schmidt, art historian and former director of the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen, and Monja Droßmann, curator of the Josef Albers Museum. Research for the exhibition was initiated by Karstieß and Schmidt during their 2021 Research Fellowship at the Foundation.

Robert Smithson constructing Mirror Displacement on a Compost Heap (1969)
For Prospect 69, Düsseldorf, Germany
Photograph: Nancy Holt
© Holt/Smithson Foundation / Licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

Archived News

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.

four steel pipes extending up from the floor with four viewing pipes pointed at four black painted circles on the wall

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.

a woman walking up a sand dune hill with her back to the camera

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.

the artist Susan Philipsz standing in a wooded landscape

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.