PRESENTATION:Goodwood Art Foundation Summer Program
Goodwood Art Foundation is a not-for-profit contemporary art institution in West Sussex, England, set within 70 acres of landscape near the South Downs. Founded as a space where art, landscape and learning converge, it combines contemporary art with nature, education and public engagement. Its programme extends beyond traditional gallery spaces, encouraging visitors to experience art through the changing landscape, seasons and environment. This summer the foundation exhibitions by: Nancy Holt, Eva Rothschild, Yayoi Kusama, Polly Apfelbaum and Hélio Oiticica.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Goodwood Art Foundation Archive
The exhibition “MoonSunStarEarthSkyWater” is the first major UK presentation of Nancy Holt. Best known for her “Sun Tunnels” (1973–76) in the Utah desert, the exhibition invites visitors to explore art shaped by light, language and space. Works include her early Concrete Poetry, photography, film and two landmark installations that extend into the landscape. Among them is “Hydra’s Head” (1974), a series of water-filled pools that bear witness to their environment.
Expanding beyond the confines of the gallery, Holt developed a distinctive sculptural language through her use of circular forms, light, reflection, and framing devices. Her works attend to what she described as the ‘concretisation of perception’, foregrounding the act of seeing as an embodied and spatial experience. Major works such as “Sun Tunnels” (1973–76), “Hydra’s Head” (1974), and her extensive “Locator” series respond directly to their environments, offering new ways of observing natural phenomena including solstices and patterns of sun and moonlight. Through these works, Holt transformed specific geographic locations into vivid and resonant sites of encounter.
Eva Rothschild is an artist best known for her sculptural practice and large-scale public commissions across the UK, Ireland and the United States. Born in Dublin, she studied Fine Art at the University of Ulster and completed an MA at Goldsmiths, London.
Presented in the Pigott Gallery and extending into the surrounding landscape, Eva Rothschild’s exhibition at Goodwood Art Foundation brings together key sculptural works alongside a pair of newly commissioned large-scale tapestries, woven locally at West Dean College’s Tapestry Studio. This continues Rothschild’s long-standing collaboration with the studio, following earlier projects for Sadler’s Wells East. Textile works have long been integral to her practice, allowing her to translate geometric imagery and vivid, neon colour into tactile three-dimensional form.
One of the world’s most prominent contemporary artists, Yayoi Kusama brings her singular vision to the South Downs with an iconic example of her large-scale sculptures “”Aspiring to Pumpkin’s Love, the Love in My Heart” (2023) – a reflection of her lifelong exploration of infinity through repetition and polka dots.
Kusama’s polka dot motifs stem from hallucinatory episodes she has experienced since childhood, in which repeated forms appear to overtake the physical world. Her work often revisits these perceptions through repetition, accumulation, proliferation and obliteration – ideas reflected in her titles and writing. Her installations invite viewers into immersive environments that disorientate and evoke a sense of boundlessness.
Recognised for her exploration of color, pattern and texture, Polly Apfelbaum’s glazed ceramics and works on paper ae installed throughout the atrium and along the walls of Goodwood Art Foundation’s restaurant, 24. Shaped by the legacies of post-war art and popular culture, Apfelbaum blurs the boundaries between art and craft.
She first rose to prominence in the 1990s with what she calls her “fallen paintings,” featuring large-scale textile works and handmade rugs arranged on the floor, sometimes inviting viewers to walk on them. Since then, she has become known for her immersive environments that engage the floors, walls and ceilings.
Unveiled in June 2026, “Magic Square #3” is the first European outdoor installation by Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica, a pioneer of the Tropicália movement. Constructed from the artist’s original instructions, visitors will walk through a sequence of vivid colour planes, where shifting angles, light and views of the surrounding landscape activate an evolving spatial experience. Magic Square #3 is a labyrinthine exploration of colour that visitors will be able to enter. A hugely significant figure within 20th century art, Oiticica coined the term ‘Tropicalia’ that named an entire movement of art, music and Brazilian identity in the 1960’s.
Hélio Oiticica is widely regarded as one of Brazil’s leading artists of the twentieth century and a touchstone for much contemporary art made since the 1960s, primarily through his freewheeling, participatory works of art, performative environments, avant-garde films and abstract paintings. Even before the age of 20, Oiticica was a key member of the historic Rio de Janeiro-based Grupo Frente (1954-56), his radical play with geometric form and vibrant colors transcending the minimal lines of European constructivism and imbuing his work with an exuberant rhythm that resonated with the avant-garde music and poetry of his native Brazil.
Photo: Hélio Oiticica, Magic Square #3 (1978/2026). Installed at Goodwood Art Foundation, UK © César and Claudio Oiticica. Courtesy Lisson. Photography by Maria Bell
Info: Goodwood Art Foundation, New Barn Hill, Goodwood, Chichester, West Sussex, United Kingdom, Duration: 2/6-1/11/2026, Days & Hours: Mon & Thu-Sun 9:00-17:00, www.goodwoodartfoundation.org/
