Art Collection
MBZUAI’s collection brings together the work of pioneering artists whose practices intersect science, mathematics, technology, and artificial intelligence, tracing a lineage from early 20th-century abstraction to contemporary digital and computational art. Spanning drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, light works, sound objects, and digital media, the collection highlights how artists have incorporated algorithms, data, systems, and machines as creative tools, often working closely with emerging technologies of their time – simultaneously pushing scientific and experimental boundaries.
It features internationally recognised figures such as Ella Bergmann-Michel, whose work investigates themes of physics and mathematics, and Samia Halaby, whose rigorous engagement with geometry, motion, and systems thinking bridges abstraction, political consciousness, and later computational approaches. These earlier works sit alongside those of foundational computer and algorithmic art including Frieder Nake, Vera Molnár, Georg Nees and Yoshiyuke Abe. Many early pioneers were multidisciplinary and combined artistic practice with engineering, mathematical and scientific research.
More recent works by artists such as Christiane Maurer, Wang Ningde, and Daniel Ambrosi extend these ideas into the present, engaging with digital processes, software, light, and environmental data. Together, the collection offers a compelling introduction to how artistic practice has anticipated, responded to, and shaped today’s computational culture.
The collection is open to scholarly research and engagement. For further information, contact: jasmine.soliman@mbzuai.ac.ae
