The David and Indrė Roberts Collection features nearly 2,500 works by over 900 artists, dating from the mid-20th century to today. The collection is rooted in a passion for contemporary art and an ambition to share extraordinary work by some of the world’s most influential artists and to support artists at different stages of their careers.

Founded in the early 1990s by David Roberts, it was referred to as the David Roberts Collection until 2021. It is now known as the David and Indrė Roberts Collection to reflect Indrė Šerpytytė-Roberts’ equal involvement in its focus and development.

International in scope, the collection focuses on modern and contemporary works spanning a variety of disciplines and media, including sculpture, painting, photography, video and installation. 

From the outset there has been a strong representation of artists at all stages of their careers, including: Charles Avery, Louise Bourgeois, Mark Bradford, Anthony Caro, Ellen Gallagher, Theaster Gates, Philip Guston, Mona Hatoum, Loie Hollowell, Jenny Holzer, Sarah Lucas, France-Lise McGurn, Nicolas Party, Eddie Peake, Bridget Riley, Cindy Sherman, Anj Smith, Danh Vo, Flora Yukhnovich and Ai Weiwei.

At the heart of this extraordinarily diverse and significant collection is David and Indrė Roberts’ belief in encouraging the development of artistic practice through commissions, supporting the production of new works, actively lending the collection and collaborating with partner organisations on exhibitions. 

The Roberts Institute of Art manages the collection and is committed to sharing it with a wide range of audiences. Works from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection have been shown publicly in numerous shows nationally and internationally, including at the Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin), the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the National Portrait Gallery (London), the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh), the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York) and Tate Modern (London). The collection has been the subject of in-depth exhibitions at the Hepworth Wakefield (2013) and MOSTYN, Wales (2018).

Selected highlights from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection can be explored below. You can also read, watch and listen to the wide range of materials we produce about the artists and works in the collection. Please contact us if you are interested in discussing the collection in more depth.

As the Roberts Institute of Art does not have a permanent gallery space, works from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection are not always on display. You can see which works are currently on exhibition by looking at our current programme and loans pages. We welcome loan requests from UK and international organisations. If you would like to request a loan from the collection, please visit the Borrow page. If you would like to reproduce an image of a work in the Collection, please contact info@therobertsinstituteofart.com.