Michael Heizer

American artist

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July 20, 2026

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Michael Heizer is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures, often referred to as Land art or earthworks. Heizer's work involves significant alterations to the landscape, utilizing vast tracts of land as his medium.12

A notable example is his work Double Negative (1969–70), which consists of two massive cuts made into the Mormon Mesa in Nevada, facing each other across a chasm. This approach challenges traditional notions of art by moving beyond the studio and gallery, engaging directly with the natural environment on a monumental scale.12

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Western painting
Land art
Michael Heizer’s Double Negative (1969–70) involved the removal of thousands of tons of earth in order to produce two “cuts” that faced each other across the chasm of the Mormon Mesa in Nevada. Bulgarian-born artist Christo and Jeanne-Claude, his Moroccan-born wife, specialized throughout the 1960s…
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Michael Heizer’s Double Negative (1969–70) involved the removal of thousands of tons of earth in order to produce two “cuts” that faced each other across the chasm of the Mormon Mesa in Nevada. Bulgarian-born artist Christo and Jeanne-Claude, his Moroccan-born wife, specialized throughout the 1960s…
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Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass. By the first quarter of the 21st century LACMA held some 155,000 works of art.
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Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass. By the first quarter of the 21st century LACMA held some 155,000 works of art.
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Robert Smithson
…Walter De Maria, Nancy Holt, Michael Heizer, and Carl Andre—Smithson chose to make his major work outside what he and his colleagues considered a compromised gallery system, he nevertheless also created smaller objects, which he called “nonsites,” for museum and gallery settings. These nonsite pieces employed topographic maps of an…
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…Walter De Maria, Nancy Holt, Michael Heizer, and Carl Andre—Smithson chose to make his major work outside what he and his colleagues considered a compromised gallery system, he nevertheless also created smaller objects, which he called “nonsites,” for museum and gallery settings. These nonsite pieces employed topographic maps of an…
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