Thoma Foundation’s pioneering Digital & Electronic Art collection

The Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation was formed in 2014 to develop grantmaking, awards, and fellowships for innovative ideas in the diverse fields of global art in which it collects. The Thoma Foundation’s pioneering Digital & Electronic Art collection includes over 300 artworks by 125 artists working in custom-coded and algorithmic software, internet-connected and generative animation, early computer drawing, interactive technology, video installation, and electronic sculpture. The Thoma Foundation passionately pursues new art acquisitions, operates an active artwork lending program, and curates original exhibitions in its art spaces in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Chicago, Illinois. We focus on purchasing artworks by mid-career and established artists whose work has shifted the fabric of the field in which they create, such as Leo Villareal, Camille Utterback, Manfred Mohr, Steina and Woody Vasulka, John Gerrard, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Sommerer and Mignonneau, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Refik Anadol, Trevor Paglen, Vera Molnar, and many others. Recent support for Digital & Electronic Art programming includes Rhizome’s Net Art Anthology, the Guggenheim Museum’s Conserving Computer-Based Art initiative, and The Body Electric exhibition at the Walker Art Center.