The Thoma Foundation’s Curator of Digital Art, Jason Foumberg, leads a behind-the-scenes video tour through the Foundation’s Digital & Electronic Art collection, offering personal anecdotes about the artworks that excite him, how the Foundation decides which artworks to collect, and a peek into our public exhibition space and private art storage vault. Foumberg’s lushly illustrated talk is organized around the Ars Electronica 2020 festival theme of Autonomy, especially spotlighting digital artists who use technology to automate creative labor and increase viewer interaction. Foumberg further explores how the philosophy of autonomy helps to guide the Foundation’s mission to support the independent thinkers and artists of our time.
Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation
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.
Video
Credit: Jason Wyche
Credit: John Gerrard
Credit: Rachel Maclean
Project Credits / Acknowledgements
Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation (US)
Jason Foumberg Curator of Digital Art
