Next Special Events | Exhibitions

Spring 2025 Exhibitions Opening

People stand in groups in a large gallery. In the foreground, three people have a conversation next to framed works hanging on the wall.

Join us for a first look at exhibitions featuring works by Nancy Holt and Maria Hupfield at this free exhibitions opening.

Experience immersive and interactive installations and see videos, films, and works on paper by two artists who inspire a greater awareness of our surroundings, humanity, and spirituality. Nancy Holt: Power Systems, developed in partnership with Holt/Smithson Foundation, is the largest exhibition of her studies of human-made systems and unseen infrastructure that gives us the energy, light, heat, and ventilation that we all rely on. Maria Hupfield: The Endless Return of Fabulous Panther (Biimskojiwan) is the US premiere of the artist’s critically acclaimed, interactive installation shown at this year’s Toronto Biennial. Through videos and a dynamic sculpture, Hupfield explores Indigenous mythology and culture and challenges the expectations for displaying and interacting with art.
 
In addition to getting a first look at these presentations, you can also interact with large-scale furniture by Outpost Office outside on the plaza.
 
The reception begins at 5 PM. At 5:30 PM, everyone is invited to a conversation in the Film/Video Theater with Maria Hupfield and Lisa Le Feuvre, curator of both exhibitions and executive director of the Holt/Smithson Foundation. The talk is moderated by Rebecca Brown Asmo, executive director of Ohio Humanities. The exhibitions will open to the public after the talk.

IMAGE CAPTION
Fall 2024 Exhibition Opening Celebration.

About the artists

Nancy Holt chevron-down chevron-up

Nancy Holt (1938–2014) was a member of the earth, land, and conceptual art movements. An innovator of site-specific installation and the moving image, Holt recalibrated the limits of art. She expanded the places where art could be found and embraced the new media of her time. Across five decades she asked questions about how we might understand our place in the world, investigating perception, systems, and place. Holt’s rich artistic output spans concrete poetry, audio works, film and video, photography, ephemeral gestures, drawings, room-sized installations, earthworks, artists’ books, and public sculpture commissions. Holt described herself as a “perception artist”; throughout her works she repeatedly challenges us to look beyond what we think we know. 

Maria Hupfield chevron-down chevron-up

Maria Hupfield merges performance art, design, and sculpture, drawing from Indigenous storytelling traditions through art, scholarship, collaboration, and social justice.
 
Hupfield was the inaugural ArtworxTO Legacy Artist in Residence with the City of Toronto, a recipient of the Hnatyshyn Mid-Career Award for Outstanding Achievement, and Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Artist Prize, among others. Her work has been exhibited, performed, and collected across North America. She is co-owner of Native Art Department International with her husband, artist Jason Lujan.
 
Hupfield is Martin clan and an off-reservation member of the Anishinaabe Nation belonging to Wasauksing First Nation, Ontario. Since 2019, she is a Canada research chair in transdisciplinary Indigenous art and an assistant professor of Indigenous digital arts and performance in the Department of Visual Studies and the Department of English & Drama at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

Nancy Holt: Power Systems is curated by Lisa Le Feuvre, executive director of the Holt/Smithson Foundation and developed in partnership with Holt/Smithson Foundation.
 
NANCY HOLT’S PRESENTATION IS MADE POSSIBLE BY

Ohio State Energy Partners
 
EXHIBITIONS 2024–25 SEASON MADE POSSIBLE BY

Bill and Sheila Lambert

Crane Family Foundation
 
FREE GALLERIES MADE POSSIBLE BY

Adam Flatto

PNC Foundation
 
WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY

Greater Columbus Arts Council

The Wexner Family

Institute of Museum and Library Services

Mellon Foundation

Every Page Foundation

Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts

CampusParc

Nationwide Foundation

Lois S. and H. Roy Chope Fund of The Columbus Foundation

Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme

The Columbus Foundation

Axium Packaging
 
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY

Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection

David Crane and Elizabeth Dang

Melissa Gilliam and William Grobman

Rebecca Perry Damsen and Ben Towle

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Spring 2025 Exhibitions Opening