The Bre Pettis Collection of Computer Art<br>If you find something that is broken or information that needs improvement, let us know at hello@bre.art×

The Bre Pettis Collection of Computer Art<br>I bought the first three of these from Wolf Lieser in Berlin in 2016 — a Vera Molnár, a Mark Wilson, and a Casey Reas. What got me was the shape of the thing: an artist sets an intention, writes a program, runs it, and then finds out what it made. Intention up front, outcome unknown. I want to watch artists explore ideas, and this is what that looks like on paper.

People assume computer art is emotionless. Then you meet the artists and hear the stories, and it turns out to run very deep.

The pioneers here were doing things that had never been done, on computers that filled a room. The software is easier now and the hardware fits on a desk, but the curiosity hasn't changed. You'll find plotter drawings from the first decades of computer art, computer music pressed to vinyl, poems generated by code, sound sculptures built out of bare circuitry, and generative work being written right now.

For years I bought this work because I wanted to live with it. In the last year I realized I had a collection, so I started documenting all of it — the artworks, and the books and ephemera around them. I know many of these artists and I want them better known. Putting the collection online shows what is here, and it lets curators and museums ask to borrow the work and put it in front of people. Someday I'd like a place where you can come and see it in person. That one is still a dream.

Have a look around. I hope you find delight in Vera Molnár and respect for the precision in Manfred Mohr, and that something here sends you looking further.

— Bre Pettis

4,181 works · 837 artists · 1955–2026 · 966 library volumes<br>Browse the collectionDigital worksResearch library

Featured Artwork<br>DES07Copper Giloth<br>1980

Featured Digital Work<br>UCracking-ExploderSTL01A 0047F 4KMarius Watz<br>2021

Sections of the collection<br>Pioneers<br>Artists who began making digital art before 2000 — the historical canon of computer, algorithmic, and plotter art.

Contemporary<br>Computer, algorithmic, and plotter art by artists who began practicing in 2000 or later.

Not-Computer Art<br>Art made without a computer — painting, works on paper, fiber, printmaking, and other traditional media.

Posters<br>Posters and screen-printed editions.

Ephemera<br>Exhibition announcements, invitations, catalogues, and printed matter.

Digital / NFT<br>Generative works collected on-chain, largely from the fxhash community, 2022–2024 — chosen for pieces that can cross into the physical world.

Sculpture<br>Three-dimensional works — wood, mixed media, and circuit boards made as art.

Music<br>Records and sound works — early computer and electronic music on vinyl and other physical audio media.

Computer Poetry<br>Poems generated, permuted, and performed by machine — from the House of Dust to digital concrete poetry.

Featured physical works<br>See all →

Frieder Nake<br>Hommage à Klee, 1966

Mark Wilson<br>Art and Computers, 1983

Lillian Schwartz<br>Homage to Hockney, 1988

Herbert W Franke<br>Drakula series, untitled, 1971

Featured digital works<br>See all →

Derrick Schultz<br>Stop Making Sense #2142, 2026

Piter Pasma<br>GEOMORPHISM #181, 2022

WootScoot<br>Monsoon #270, 2022

clauswilke<br>Before/After #145, 2022