Born and raised on the east coast, Hikmet Sidney Loe fell in love with the Great Basin's deserts and the environs of Great Salt Lake. She is an author, curator, and educator whose work examines the changeable nature of the earth and addresses our perceptual and cultural constructs of the land. She draws inspiration from the smaller patterns found in the larger environments of land, water, and sky.
She is the author of the award winning book The Spiral Jetty Encyclo: Exploring Robert Smithson's Earthwork through Time and Place (2017), the first book in a new series devoted to our cultural and regional understanding of Land art from the 1960s and 1970s.
In 2021 she was named as Research Fellow with Holt/Smithson Foundation; her work centered on organizing the artist Nancy Holt's extensive library for research purposes.
In 2023 she presented "The Center's Circumference," a performative talk during a day-long event, CRITICAL GROUND, "an initiative exploring how the dialogue of art critique might shift towards communities and artists working outside the frameworks of NYC and LA. An experimental venture, the intention is to create a platform and space for this conversation in Utah, and to serve as a model for other places in the country with like-minded vision." Granary Arts
Recent
"Michael Heizer began ‘City’ 50 years ago. Does it hold up today?" Savanna Strott's article (The Nevada Independent and also in High Country News under the title "What to make of land art in the era of LandBack") offers a myriad of viewpoints regarding artist Michael Heizer's newly-accessible earthwork, City. It is the first article to include local Indigenous voices to the conversation regarding this work.
In Conversation with artist and writer Emily Budd, Available Space Art Projects, 08.03.24, conversation on ASAP's instagram site
Salt Lines: Exploring Climate, Environment, and the Saline Influx
upcoming: Southern Utah Museum of Art exhibition catalog essay on photographs of Great Salt Lake: David Maisel's photographic essay, Terminal Mirage and Alexandra Fuller's Dissolution and Tautology
Deep Time: Sea Dragons of Nevada
upcoming April 2025: Nevada Museum of Art lecture, Robert Smithson's Dragons: There Be Sea Monsters!
Salt Lines: Exploring Climate, Environment, and the Saline Influx
upcoming: Southern Utah Museum of Art exhibition catalog essay on photographs of Great Salt Lake: David Maisel's photographic essay, Terminal Mirage and Alexandra Fuller's Dissolution and Tautology
Deep Time: Sea Dragons of Nevada
upcoming April 2025: Nevada Museum of Art lecture, Robert Smithson's Dragons: There Be Sea Monsters!
Past Exhibitions
carto·graphic / Anne Mooney, John Sparano (detail)
The Center Can Not Hold - Granary Arts, Ephraim, UT
October 12, 2022 - January 12, 2023 Curator: HIkmet Sidney Loe (click on link for events, images, etc.) The Center Can Not Hold considers ideas of place conceptualized through the processes of architecture, revealing the temporal nature of the center. Positioning the geographical center of Utah and the town of Ephraim as the practical center for creative work, regional architects Anne Mooney and John Sparano (principals at Sparano + Mooney Architecture) and Hannah Vaughn (principal at VY Architecture) respond to this idea through forms, words, and questions. - Granary Arts website |
Modern Desert Markings: An Homage to Las Vegas Area Land Art - Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, UNLV March 14 - July 8, 2023 Curators: Katie Hoffman and Hikmet Sidney Loe (click on links for events, podcasts, images, etc.) The Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art and Nevadans for Cultural Preservation are pleased to present Modern Desert Markings: An Homage to Las Vegas Area Land Art, an exhibition that uses contemporary perspectives to critique five historic works of Land Art located in the deserts of Southern Nevada. Curators Katie Hoffman and Hikmet Sidney Loe have selected ten artists from around the United States to produce new work inspired by foundational pieces of Land Art created by Walter De Maria (1935-2013), Michael Heizer (1944 -), and Jean Tinguely (1925-91). Working in drawing, sculpture, photography, video, and more, the ten artists bring fresh and critical eyes to these celebrated works from the 1960s and 70s, using a diversity of approaches to address related issues such as land ownership, desert ecology, and tourism. - Barrick Museum website NVFCP is proud to present a gallery exhibition designed to reintroduce the public to five now-historic artworks in the deserts around Las Vegas by presenting a new body of work by contemporary artists. Ten artists have produced pieces inspired by Nevada landscapes and historic Land Art by Walter DeMaria, Jean Tinguely, and Michael Heizer. Paired with these fresh artworks are maps from UNLV students and information about some of Nevada's most unique cultural resources. - Nevadans for Cultural Preservation website |
Publications
Current Articles
"The Center's Circumference," Granary Arts / Critical Ground, 2023
"Viewing the Colorado River: Between Art and Actuality," Southwest Contemporary, March 3, 2023
VVV"
Upcoming Books
"The Sun Tunnels Encyclo: Exploring Nancy Holt's Earthwork through Perception and Site," under contract, The University of Utah Press, (2026)
"The Center's Circumference," Granary Arts / Critical Ground, 2023
"Viewing the Colorado River: Between Art and Actuality," Southwest Contemporary, March 3, 2023
VVV"
Upcoming Books
"The Sun Tunnels Encyclo: Exploring Nancy Holt's Earthwork through Perception and Site," under contract, The University of Utah Press, (2026)
Poster highlights the myriad topics to be included in the upcoming book, "The Sun Tunnels Encyclo." Citation: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cfa_collaborate/10/
Recently...
Southwest Contemporary, contributing writer, Fall 2021 to present
"The Great Salt Lake Is Desolate. It's Also Divine," interviewed for this article by Bill Gifford for Outside Magazine
EXTRACTION: art on the edge of the abyss has worked for the past few years on programming to highlight extraction industries. A comprehensive Megazine was published in late 2020, which includes my essay on extraction processes in Utah's Great Salt Lake. This essay was reprinted (with modifications) in Dark Mountain - Abyss, Issue 20, Autumn 2021
Holt/Smithson Foundation, through their robust programming, includes a Weekend Screening program. I provided a brief introduction to the Nancy Holt film "Bob with Books" (1971), with information found here.
RadioWest hosted a program in early December, 2020 in response to a mysterious obelisk found in Southern Utah. Click here for information and to listen to the program.
EXTRACTION: art on the edge of the abyss has worked for the past few years on programming to highlight extraction industries. A comprehensive Megazine was published in late 2020, which includes my essay on extraction processes in Utah's Great Salt Lake.
Hyperallergic published my article on a film by American artist Nancy Holt (1938-2014). The film (less than ten minutes) was previously thought to be lost; it elucidates Holt's interest in landscape, vision, and viewer engagement.
FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake included an article in their Spring 2020 newsletter, "Spiral Jetty through Time," in honor of the earthwork's 50th anniversary.
"The Great Salt Lake Is Desolate. It's Also Divine," interviewed for this article by Bill Gifford for Outside Magazine
EXTRACTION: art on the edge of the abyss has worked for the past few years on programming to highlight extraction industries. A comprehensive Megazine was published in late 2020, which includes my essay on extraction processes in Utah's Great Salt Lake. This essay was reprinted (with modifications) in Dark Mountain - Abyss, Issue 20, Autumn 2021
Holt/Smithson Foundation, through their robust programming, includes a Weekend Screening program. I provided a brief introduction to the Nancy Holt film "Bob with Books" (1971), with information found here.
RadioWest hosted a program in early December, 2020 in response to a mysterious obelisk found in Southern Utah. Click here for information and to listen to the program.
EXTRACTION: art on the edge of the abyss has worked for the past few years on programming to highlight extraction industries. A comprehensive Megazine was published in late 2020, which includes my essay on extraction processes in Utah's Great Salt Lake.
Hyperallergic published my article on a film by American artist Nancy Holt (1938-2014). The film (less than ten minutes) was previously thought to be lost; it elucidates Holt's interest in landscape, vision, and viewer engagement.
FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake included an article in their Spring 2020 newsletter, "Spiral Jetty through Time," in honor of the earthwork's 50th anniversary.
The Spiral Jetty Encyclo: Exploring Robert Smithson's Earthwork through Time and Place (2017)
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Presented biannually at the Great Salt Lake Issues Forum, the Friend of the Lake Award "is given to a person, organization, or business performing outstanding work in education, research and/or advocacy to benefit Great Salt Lake." It was my honor to receive this award during the 2014 Great Salt Lake Issues Forum.
As a long-time observer of Great Salt Lake, and scholar of the earthworks that are part of its landscape, my interview is part of this oral history project.
all content copyright © Hikmet Sidney Loe, 2022