The University of Toledo’s Dan Hernandez has long been drawn to the visual language of digital art, taking inspirations from video games in his award-winning body of work.
Now the art professor is exploring the medium of digital art as the Toledo Museum of Art’s 2025 Community Digital Artist in Residence. The collaborative program, under the museum’s digital arts-focused venture TMA Labs, will equip him to explore as an artist the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Dan Hernandez is a professor of art at UToledo.
“This residency is a great fit for me because a lot of my work already incorporates digital tools and pulls references from digital source material,” Hernandez said. “The digital marketplace is an exciting new frontier for artists and a totally new world to me. I’m excited to learn how to navigate it through this collaboration with the Toledo Museum of Art.”
Throughout the nearly year-long residency, Hernandez will work with TMA’s 2025 Digital Artist in Residence, Emily Xie, a New York City-based visual artist who works with code and computation to create lifelike textures and forms.
Hernandez and Xie will create an array of new digital artworks that will be on display and available for free download via blockchain technology during an exhibition at TMA in September. The residency will then culminate in the release of unique, one-of-one digital artworks available for sale through the renowned auction house Christie’s.
Hernandez teaches drawing and painting out of the UToledo Center for the Visuals Arts, the Frank O. Gehry-designed facility adjacent to TMA.
The physical proximity of the buildings reflects a close relationship between the UToledo Department of Art and the Toledo Museum of Art, which last year included a collaboration between faculty and the 2024 Digital Artist in Residence, Yatreda : ያጥሬዳ , to create a digital medallion that museum visitors downloaded to their smartphones in 2024.
The Toledo Museum of Art launched its Digital Artist in Residence Program in 2023.
