The great works of Land Art, such as Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, Michael Heizer’s City, Walter de Maria’s Desert Cross, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Running Fence, and Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels continue to captivate viewers with their daring, outsized, and groundbreaking qualities. They’ve done so largely thanks to the photographs of Gianfranco Gorgoni, who worked side-by-side with the artists while their works were being realized. 

This exhibition brings together more than 50 of his stunning, large-format images that offer a visual definition of first-generation Land Art in the American West—the work of “a roadie, stuntman, and documentarian rolled into one,” according to Nevada Museum of Art CEO David B. Walker. The exhibition also coincides with a monograph of the same name, published by Monacelli, which features 150 color and black-and-white images accompanied by essays penned by curators Ann M. Wolfe and the late Germano Celant. 

Gianfranco Gorgoni, Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels, Great Basin Desert, Utah, 1973–1976, 2016.