The MACBA presents "Nancy Holt / Inside Out"

The Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) presents the largest monographic exhibition ever held in Europe of the work of the versatile artist Nancy Holt (Worcester, Massachusetts, 1938 - New York, 2014). From July 13 to January 7, 2024, the exhibition includes a selection of works made between 1966 and 1992 in various formats such as film, video, photography, poetry, sound works, sculpture and installations by an artist considered key in the New York art scene, a pioneer in the field of site-specific installation and the moving image. Nancy Holt / Dins Fora reflects on concepts such as place, location or perception essential in the work and its point of union with nature.

Nancy Holt (Worcester, Massachusetts, 1938 - New York, 2014) was a central figure in the New York art scene and a pioneer of site-specific installations and the moving image. She was often linked to the land art and American conceptual art movements, although her work is less well known than that of her male colleagues, a situation that this exhibition aims to correct. Rather than stick to these art historiography classifications, she herself preferred to be identified as an "artist of perception".

The exhibition proposes a reflection around concepts such as place, location or perception, essential in Holt's work, not only from a spatial point of view but as a point of union with nature and the environment

"Inside and outside are two provocations that trace a route throughout the five decades of artistic production. Holt's spatial and visual poetry invites us to recognize the hidden systems that constitute and structure the ways of being and of perceiving the world", MACBA explained.

Holt, who was a figure often linked to the American land art and conceptual art movements, has a body of work less well known than that of her male colleagues. Therefore, one of the objectives of the exhibition is to correct this. "Nancy Holt's work is an invitation to stop to observe, reflect and pay attention to the concrete world in transformation", they commented.

The initiative, which is the result of the collaboration between the Holt/Smithson Foundation and the Bildmuseet in Umeå (Sweden), is being expanded to Barcelona with six works in addition to the publication of a publication that expands content on the artist's career.

The exhibition was curated by Katarina Pierre, director of the Bildmuseet; Lisa Le Feuvre, executive director of the Holt/Smithson Foundation, and Teresa Grandas, curator of exhibitions at the MACBA.