Goodwood Art Foundation has announced its Summer 2026 programme, bringing together major works by international artists including Nancy Holt, Eva Rothschild, Polly Apfelbaum, Yayoi Kusama and Lee Ufan. Opening on 2 May and running until 1 November 2026, the programme will unfold across the Foundation’s galleries, restaurant spaces and 70-acre landscape in West Sussex.
Presented in partnership with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the season features more than 50 works spanning sculpture, installation, ceramics, textiles, photography, film, prints and drawing. Outdoor installations and site-responsive commissions will once again play a central role in the Foundation’s evolving relationship between art and landscape.
At the heart of the programme is the first major UK presentation dedicated to American land artist Nancy Holt (1938–2014), titled MoonSunStarEarthSkyWater. Holt’s practice explored the relationship between human perception, landscape and cosmic systems across more than four decades. The exhibition includes photographic works, drawings, concrete poetry, installations and films, including Sun Tunnels (1978), alongside new iterations of site-responsive works realised according to the artist’s instructions in collaboration with Holt/Smithson Foundation.
One of the exhibition’s most significant presentations is the first posthumous installation of Hydra’s Head (1974), an earthwork composed of six pools of water positioned according to the Hydra constellation. Installed within the Foundation’s chalk quarry, the work reflects the changing skies above and extends Holt’s exploration of celestial alignment into the surrounding landscape.
Irish artist Eva Rothschild has also unveiled a major new commission for the Foundation. A large-scale tapestry, woven locally at West Dean College’s Tapestry Studio, will be shown in the Pigott Gallery alongside a series of sculptures placed both indoors and across the grounds. Rothschild, who represented Ireland at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019, is known for a sculptural language that combines geometry, colour and material experimentation.
Within the Foundation’s restaurant, 24, New York-based artist Polly Apfelbaum presents a selection of glazed ceramics and works on paper. Apfelbaum’s multidisciplinary practice, which often blurs the boundaries between painting, sculpture and installation, draws from both post-war art and popular culture while engaging with ideas of craft, colour and pattern.
The outdoor programme includes a recent sculpture by Yayoi Kusama, shown in the South Downs for the first time. Aspiring to Pumpkin’s Love, the Love in My Heart (2023) continues the artist’s longstanding exploration of infinity through repetitive forms and polka dots. A large-scale sculpture from Lee Ufan’s Relatum series will also be installed within the landscape, reflecting the South Korean artist’s minimalist philosophy and interest in spatial relationships and material encounter.
Music and live performance will form part of the summer programme. On 23 and 24 May, artist and musician Nabihah Iqbal will premiere Imagined, Eternal, described as her first concert-length classical composition for strings and electronics. Inspired by the Goodwood landscape and the poetry of John Keats, the performance will feature the Manchester Collective string quartet alongside guest artists t l k and Lucinda Chua, with site-specific visuals by director and artist Daisy Dickinson.
Later in June, Goodwood Art Foundation will unveil the first outdoor sculpture by Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica to be presented in Europe. Magic Square #3 (1977–79/2025), constructed according to the late artist’s instructions, forms part of the UK/Brazil Season of Culture 2025–26 and continues Oiticica’s influential exploration of colour and participatory space.
The Foundation’s Schwarzman Gardens, designed by landscape designer Dan Pearson, will also continue to feature works by Rachel Whiteread, Susan Philipsz, Rose Wylie and Isamu Noguchi, alongside relocated soapstone sculptures by Solange Pessoa first presented during the Foundation’s winter exhibition, ERASURE.
Ann Gallagher, Consultant Curator, described the programme as an expansion of the Foundation’s commitment to presenting “outstanding contemporary art” through both exhibitions and landscape installations. She noted the significance of hosting the first major UK presentation of Nancy Holt’s work, alongside new commissions and major outdoor works by internationally recognised artists.
The Duke of Richmond and Gordon highlighted the Foundation’s first year, which included a summer season headlined by Rachel Whiteread and a growing learning programme engaging local schoolchildren with art in a natural environment.
Chris Brownridge, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, said the partnership reflects a shared commitment to creativity, imagination and cultural engagement rooted in Goodwood but with international reach.
Goodwood Art Foundation’s Summer 2026 programme opens on 2 May and runs until 1 November 2026.
